Realtor turns illegal profit from greenbelt farmland

The plot being divided on the land.

By Bhanu Teja

BANGALORE (Oct. 20)—A city realtor bought a tract of greenbelt land for Rs. 6.3 million, divided the land into 60 plots and illegally sold each one for Rs. 3.5 million.

Kishore Kumar bought one acre and 16 guntas (one gunta is 101.7 square meters) of land from a farmer in Gaviyanpalya, a village southwest of Bangalore, six months ago.

The land he bought comes under the greenbelt area declared by the Karnataka State government under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act.

He started to divide the land into plots four months ago. 

Jadeyappa, the farmer, said he got good money for selling the land and is building a house with it.

He got Rs. 6.3 million for selling the land—far more than farming it would have fetched him.

Prasad, a mason working in the plot-dividing project, said: “We may finish this project within four months from now. Though we didn’t get water or electricity connection, we have already sold some plots to customers.”

Narayana Swami, the panchayat town council president, said: “To make layouts and sell the plots one should first convert the land into commercial plots through Karnataka Land Revenue Department. Then we will approve the layout to sell and then provide the water and electricity connections.

“We haven’t approved that layout from our side until now. We know that he is dividing the land into layouts, but we don’t know whether he is selling the plots.

“We are strong from our side—we won’t approve [the project] until he turns the land into a commercial space.”

Kumar refused to comment on the selling of the land.

Prasad said, “We made the plan, but I don’t know anything about the conversion of the land.”