Ex-military officer’s family awaits land registration for 25 long years

Ahna Prakash | NT

Krishnamurthy, a retired Indian military officer and war veteran, acquired the title to 20 guntas of land in Vaderahalli village in North Bengaluru in 1995.

However, registration of the land to his name has been pending for 25 years.

Mohan Krishnamurthy, who has been fighting for his father’s land told News Trial that the High Court passed an order in 2017 directing the DC office that "the inquiry be concluded within six months therefrom". But since then, there has been no action by the revenue department.

“My father, who was fighting over the issue passed away two years ago, and my elderly mother is dependent on me. My father had been fighting for the land title for years and got cheated by several middlemen. As he was getting old, I stepped in to take legal action. My lawyer filed a writ petition with the HC. However, when no action was taken after the HC order, in July 2022, I met the in-charge deputy commissioner of Bengaluru Urban to submit my appeal. He directed the office manager to review my case,” said Mohan.

After reviewing Mohan’s case, the officials were not able to clarify the actual reason behind the delay. “A middleman explained that revenue officials wait for people to approach them and ‘pay a big bribe’ before finally passing the order. I refused that middleman’s offer,” claims Mohan.

Following no action taken by the officials, Mohan has taken to social media to make people aware of the situation. He started an online petition and as of now, over 14,785 people have signed in on the Change.org petition, https://www.change.org/RevenueKarnataka.

“The social media activism is certainly drawing attention to other issues at the revenue department. After my tweet went viral, people are closely watching the revenue department’s actions and inaction. The same people will vote during the BBMP and Karnataka elections and the issue of corruption will come up,” he said.

He has also sent several appeals to Karnataka CM through email and has filed four requests on the Karnataka Grievance web portal. “I am still awaiting an update from the officials,” he added.

Recently, hundreds of ex-servicemen joined a protest at Freedom Park in the city and wrote a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai stating that the funds and land allocated to them have not been sanctioned by the government. Due to this, thousands of ex-servicemen are living without benefits that were introduced by the government for them.