IFS officer accused of evicting Dalits from 17 acres dispute land and sparing apartments

The Urban Deputy Conservator of Forest Deepika Bajpai was in news for taking converting empty lands into green cover by reclaiming the forest land has landed up in the controversy 

The Indian Foreign Service officer is now accused of chasing over 20 families belonging to Dalit from 17 acres dispute area in Kothnur and sparing the apartment which also has come up in the same vicinity.

The families say, they have been living and cultivating from last 35 years and cannot be evicted a month ago.
Muniyappa who is  63 years old says the land measures 54 acres, and it falls under grazing land category.  Earlier the government had given lands to many builders, and only 17 acres remained in which poor Dalit families were growing crops and surviving.

"Over 30 families here belonging to Dalits engaged in agriculture. The third generation of families is now into growing vegetable and greens. Many families were dependent on that land, but these things were not taken into consideration, and all of a sudden forest department came and evicted from our land saying the land belongs to them,"   said Muniyappa.

Echoing similar sentiments, Ravichander another landless farmer says, the eviction is nothing but a violation of human rights. The fight between Ex-servicemen and forest department has led to taking over land belonging to Dalits by the forest department. The Ex- serviceman Society had contested in court saying the disputed land belongs to them in Supreme Court, but it lost the case. The forest department which was aware of the fact that there were families involved in agriculture activity, mercilessly broke sheds of Dalits.  

"Since revenue department is the original custodian of the land had the right to display the ownership. Under its discretion, can grant the land to tillers as per the act. We were running around the revenue department to get the disputed land as we are rightful owners and have been tilling since ages. The forest department is at fault. If they claim the disputed land here belongs to them, then why they failed to reclaimed land on which apartments have come up," he said.

Defending her move, the IFS officer and Deputy Conservator of Forest Department, Bengaluru Urban, Dipika Bajpai,  said, "The case of the 17 acres of land was pending in the court for many years as the Ex-servicemen Society had said that the land belonged to them. The case was taken up to Supreme Court. Fortunately, the SC gave judgement in our favour saying that the land belongs to the forest department and that it can be taken into custody by the forest department. The land was worth 200 crores."

The land comes at survey number 47, and the department has taken the land into its custody, we are contemplating to take up the plantation work to create a huge lung space for the citizens.

Communist Party leader Gopal Gowda lashed at Bajpai and said, the officer has spared the rich and targeted the poor Dalits. "As this is a case of government land, we approached revenue minister and asked him to intervene. Meanwhile, we have managed to stall the plants of forest department from planting tree saplings from the cultivation land. We shall take the fight to the logic end,"  he said.

• forest land
• dispute
• dalits
• kothnur
• IFS officer
• Dipika Bajpai