Mangalore Golf Course: CAG report says former DC allotted land illegally
Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)
Bangalore, Feb 26: The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has indicted a former deputy commissioner (DC) of Dakshina Kannada district for extending permission to develop a golf course at Pilikula.
The report has stated that the DC had given permission to develop this golf course without having any authority to do so. This observation finds a place in the CAG report for the year ending March 31, 2013, placed before the state assembly by law minister, T B Jayachandra, on Tuesday February 24.
The report states that in 1999, out of 341.46 acres earmarked for the construction of a hospital for tuberculosis and lung diseases, Pilikula Golf Club Society had encroached upon 185.18 acres of land in Moodushedde and Tiruvail villages, even before lease of this land was sanctioned by the government. The report has pointed out that repeated appeals and reminders of the director in the department of health about this encroachment since October 1999 were ignored by the concerned.
The CAG report has stated that the then deputy commissioner of the district had transferred 53.65 acres of government land worth Rs 72.43 crore to the Pilikula Golf Club Society, without having authority to do so. The land was vested with the society in 2001, and the report says the government lost heavily because of this improper action.
"The land was ceded even without bringing it to the notice of the government. Even if the aim of this disposal was tourism development and supporting golf, the land could have been sold at the prevailing market rate," it stresses.
The above is one of the several observations found in the CAG report on the functioning of the government departments in the state.