Srinivas College management says it had no intention to encroach on government land at Mukka near Mangaluru

A. Shama Rao Foundation, Mangaluru, claims to have learned the actual boundary only after revenue officials identified the demarcation using the Dishank app.

A. Shama Rao Foundation, Mangaluru, that runs Srinivas College at Mukka near Mangaluru, has said it had no intention of encroaching on government land or water body adjacent to the college campus in response to an FIR filed by the Revenue Department of Karnataka.

An undated statement issued by the vice-president of the foundation stated: “Whatever observation made by the public and the authorities is related to a spillover of the mud filling done in our land, which is very near to the government land. It was an oversight of the contractor, and he was immediately entrusted to clear the same.”

The foundation claimed to have learned the actual boundary only after revenue officials identified the demarcation using the Dishank app. It claimed that the foundation, which is dedicated to public charitable services, did not intend to encroach on government land and restored the original boundary after learning the same.

Regarding the public complaint of sewage from the college flowing into Nandini river, the foundation said sewage from commercial complexes, apartments and establishments from Chelairu village flows in the raja kaluve (drain) through its property and joins the river. It had fled a complaint with the Mangaluru City Corporation in this regard.

Based on a complaint by Surathkal Revenue Inspector N. G. Prasad, the police had registered an FIR against the foundation and its office-bearers on March 17 for alleged encroachment of 23 cents out of 4.11 acres of poramboke land in Surathkal village. The foundation had dumped soil into the water body in an attempt to encroach on the plot, which is adjacent to its building. The soil was removed after the survey, the department had said.