TALES OF A TEACHER 4

There was a very important reason for me to hasten the process of construction of the new College Building. After the land was allotted to the College and about 500 saplings were planted by our N.S.S. team, it became imperative to see the property was protected and plants were watered regularly. We had an Attendant in the College hailing from a village close by and he was entrusted with the job for an additional monthly stipend of Rs. 250/=.

One morning he cycled furiously to inform me that one person had occupied a portion of the land and dumped some construction material on it. When challenged, he had threatened the Attendant with dire consequences. Immediately a Colleague and I went to check and found that construction work on a small “kutcha” house was on and about four or five people were engaged in it. When I enquired what was going on, one of them answered arrogantly that he was constructing a house. When I told him it was our land, he abused me and said he was squatting on it like many others in the neighborhood had on government land and I could evict him if I had the guts. He claimed the support of about two hundred local residents squatting for many years on government land allotted to various institutions and who could not be evicted. He wanted to know what I would do to prevent him from constructing a house. He boasted of his nexus with a few prominent local bigwigs who would protect him, he claimed, forever.

I knew there was no use talking to him and others. Returning to the College, I placed a trunk call to the Superintendent of Police, Hassan District. Luckily for me, he was in Station and I reported the entire matter to him. He listened to me patiently for about fifteen minutes and told me that the land would be free of encroachment by the next morning.

The next morning when I reached the College, the Circle Inspector of Police, Sakleshpur Circle was waiting for me. He told me that the Superintendent of Police had told him to inform me that the land was free of encroachment and asked would I come to the Police Station to identify the culprits. In the Police Station were the five of them engaged in the previous day’s building activity in a sorry state, handcuffed, bleeding and very contrite- looking. They begged me to let them go (a complete contrast to the previous day’s arrogant posture). I identified them and named them in a complaint. I was curious to know their fate. The Circle Inspector told me that two of them were notorious goondas and other three were their friends and Belur would not see them for sometime as they would be lodged in Bellary Jail for a few months (or years) on various charges including encroaching Government Property (which was a serious charge). They were caught with evidence. The Police listed about twenty charges against them, and it was obvious that they would be guests of the Government for a long time.

The local Press gave wide publicity to the incident and I was some kind of a local hero for a while though I was only a minor actor in the drama. I rang up the Superintendent of Police to thank him. As I knew that widespread encroachment of Government land was on in that area, I asked the S.P. what he proposed to do to vacate other encroachments. He said he would and could do nothing as long as the institutions to which the land was allotted did not file a complaint. He said that all Government Officers were not like I was and some corrupt heads of Institutions connived at encroachment by collecting some kind of consideration from the encroachers and scuttling any kind of construction. When an encroacher sits on land for a long time the land ultimately becomes his. The bonafide owner will lose part of land encroached; if he goes to court the case would drag on for decades during which nothing could be done on the land! He said that this encroachment game was the favorite of many Coffee planters who had or whose ancestors had sat on hundred of acres of Forest land converted to Coffee estates!

Eye witnesses to the Police operations gave an account of what happened at the site. Around five O’ clock in the morning, two Police Black Marias accompanied a gang of Municipal workers in tractor- trailers. They hammered down the door of the thatched tenement and arrested the five who were sleeping inside before they had time to gather their wits to get up and run. Once these guys were in the Police van in handcuffs the Municipal gangmen razed the building to the ground and carried away the debris along with bricks, sand and other equipment. The operation was over in just ten minutes!