Belagavi: The government has taken a serious view of officials who violated the law by granting Bagair Hukum land to encroachers and illegal occupants. In the Legislative Council on Friday, Minister Krishna Byre Gowda announced that the department will initiate disciplinary action as well as criminal cases against all officials involved.

Responding to a question raised by MLC Ramesh Babu during Zero Hour, the minister said illegal allotment of government land cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. He expressed regret that some officials themselves had been part of such irregularities. Referring to the incident in Chikkanayakanahalli taluk, the minister said around 98 individuals were issued fake cultivation certificates in the name of farmers.

FIRs have already been registered against the land grabbers who applied for khata based on these forged documents.

Krishna Byre Gowda further explained that the moment the government received complaints about fake cultivation certificates being issued in farmers’ names, a special investigation team was formed and dispatched to Chikkanayakanahalli on November 13. The inquiry is currently in progress. He noted that such file tampering cannot happen without the involvement of record-room officials. Therefore, FIRs have been filed against all officials who held charge of the taluk’s record section from 2018 till now.

The investigation team is now examining the signatures on the forged documents to determine which are genuine and which are fake.

Officials have sought an additional week to submit the signature verification report. “The government is treating the issue very seriously. Once the final report is received, criminal cases will be filed against all officials found guilty, along with strict departmental action,” the minister confirmed.

Vacant state government posts to be filled in phases

On Thursday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah informed the Legislative Council that the government will fill 1,88,037 vacant posts across various departments in a phased manner, after obtaining approval from the Finance Department.

Replying to a starred question by opposition member Hanumanth Nirani, the CM said that the state currently has 2,84,881 sanctioned posts, of which 96,844 have already been filled through regular and outsourced recruitment. The remaining vacancies—over 1.88 lakh—will be filled gradually. These include 1,01,420 posts in various boards and corporations and 14,677 posts in universities.

He added that approval has already been granted to initiate the recruitment process for 24,300 posts. Under Article 371(J), 32,132 posts still need to be filled in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. In total, action has been initiated to fill 56,432 posts so far.

The CM clarified that delays in recruitment occurred due to complications related to internal reservation, which have now been resolved, allowing the government to proceed with the hiring process.