Southern States - Karnataka   

Revenue staff locked up in circuit house

By Our Staff Correspondent

HASSAN JAN. 22. In a strange incident, the irrigation authorities of the Hemavathy Project locked up the revenue officials at the circuit house of the project for nearly two hours on Wednesday. The officials had assembled there to conduct Jamabandhi (annual general assessment of land). They were released at the intervention of the Deputy Commissioner, L.K. Atheeq, and the Superintendent of Police, Nanjundaswamy.

Without giving a reason, Lakshminarayana, Executive Engineer (Dam Division), ordered that they be locked up at the main hall of the circuit house. The main gate was also locked up to prevent their colleagues from entering the premises. Repeated requests by the Hassan and Sakleshpur Assistant commissioners to release them did not yield result.

Mr. Atheeq, and Mr. Nanjundaswamy rushed to the spot, and informed the Chief Engineer, Beeradar, about the incident. Mr. Beeradar ordered the "safe'' release of the officials. Describing the incident as unfortunate, Mr. Atheeq said he would send a detailed report on it to the Government and recommend serious action against Mr. Lakshminarayana. M. Jagannatha Rao, Arkalgud Tahsildar, who was locked up with his subordinates, filed a complaint against Mr. Lakshminarayana with Mr. Nanajundaswamy. The latter said he was examining it and would take suitable action.

Mr. Rao said he had submitted a request to Mr. Lakshminarayana on January 18, seeking permission to hold the meeting at the circuit house.

But the project authorities did not respond to it. Hoping that permission would be granted, he and other taluk-level revenue officials assembled at the main hall of the circuit house.

``Mr. Lakshminarayana, who visited the circuit house, got agitated at this and abused us. He threw away the land records and manhandled me. Later, he asked his subordinates to lock the hall and the main gate and left the spot in a hurry,'' Mr. Rao said.

The Assistant Commissioners, Subodh Yadav and Jayanna, rushed to the spot and requested the Deputy Chief Engineer to open the locks of the main gate. This did not yield any result.

Mr. Atheeq, who had an engagement in the city, rushed to the spot with Mr. Nanjundappa and took steps for the release of the officials.

A number of agitated revenue officials assembled near the circuit house, and urged Mr. Atheeq to take action against the guilty. Mr. Atheeq promised to do so, and directed them to hold the land assessment. When he asked Mr. Lakshiminarayana why he resorted to such behaviour, the latter pleaded ignorance of the system called Jamabandhi (land assessment), and said he did not even know who the tahsildar was.

Mr. Atheeq told presspersons that he did not want to term the incident an inter-departmental fight. It was due to the irresponsible behaviour of an official.

Police gave security to Mr. Lakshminarayana to save him from the agitated crowd outside the circuit house.

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