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Udupi Based HRPF to Support Koraga Communities Who Struggle to Get Piece of Land Allotted to Them

Udupi: In a press meet organized at Udupi on November 11, president of Udupi based Human Rights Protection Foundation (HRPF), Dr. ​​Ravindranath Shanbhag narrated how Koraga communities have been fighting to get piece of land allotted to them in Udupi district. In a press statement he said…

About 29 Koraga community members of Udupi Taluk came to know that Karnataka government has made a scheme for the development of their community by allotting land to them and the land has been identified and reserved for their developmental in habilitation. In 2010, they submitted their application to the concerned authorities. Their enquiry for the fate of the status of the application could not be digested by them as it was said that they belong to higher income group category and hence allotment of government land to them is not possible. But the applicants were holding the income certificate issued by the Tahsildar of Udupi which established the whole play being engineered by the authorities.

Finally, after about 6 months they got information that at Bommanabettu village, Kondady area at Survey No.229, 2.61 acre of land was allotted and identified for 29 applicants, the lands to be distributed as 8 cents to each of the applicants. On the auspicious occasion of the Independence Day Celebrations in 2011, ministers, MLA’S distributed the records of right to the 29 aspirants and they celebrated their success in getting the sanction from the government.

But to their astonishment they could not trace out the land allotted to them and hence had to resort contacting the project officer for ‘Girijana Yojana Adhikari’. Meanwhile, they received information that the government has sanctioned 1.5 lakhs for the leveling of the land allotted to these people out of which Rs.97, 000 got released. Again in 2013/14 information was received that Rs.3 lakhs was sanctioned for the same project but the fate of the sanctioned amount is unknown.

Administrative Sermon!

On receiving the complaints, by DC from the aspirants/allottees that the land has not been leveled the district authority gave a sermon stating that it has to be done by aspirants/allottees themselves. Accordingly the aspirants/allottees collecting fund from themselves and also by laboring themselves tried to level the land but they were unsuccessful in their attempts due to the practical difficulties.

Complaint to Human Rights Commission

On November 2015, the Chairman of Human Rights Commission, Karnataka visited Udupi and the aspirants gave a complaint to the Human Rights Commission. On receiving the grievances Dr.Vishal the then Udupi DC directed the authorities to address the grievance. It resulted in the DC visiting the site the allottees explained their plight to DC in person but they never heard any response initiated by DC to mitigate the problem but heard that the DC Dr.Vishal got transferred from Udupi.

Complaint to Human Rights Protection Foundation, (HRPF) Udupi

Instead of waiting for government allotment, if the allottees /aspirants had made any approach to purchase a land and construct the house , the construction cost would have been much lower as inflation has risen in the last 7 years. HRPF, Udupi has decided to extend full support to the allottees /aspirants by creating public opinion . HRPF has decided to fight the case till justice is delivered.