After firing the first salvo against the encroachers, the BBMP has a long road ahead in clearing the debris, razing structure on lake beds and creating a buffer zone around water bodies where builders should dread to tread. It’s only after sewage treatment plants are set up to prevent the giant ‘foam explosion’ at our lakes and rainwater has an easy passage into rivers instead of flooding the city’s vitals that the Palike can sit back and claim credit for a job well done. And what about compensating all those who were taken for a ride by corrupt babus and builders and are now on the streets?
Demolitions to stop for four days over weekend
Day six of the BBMP’s demolition drive saw its bulldozers raze buildings over about 600 meters of encroached drains to recover land worth Rs 100 crore in Doddabommasandra on Thursday.
Around 40 commercial and residential structures were brought down along 2.4 kms of a raja kaluve on Vidyaranyapura main road, taking the tally of buildings razed to 110 at the end of the two- day drive in the area. “We have cleared around 600 metres of encroachments so far and reclaimed 65,000 sq ft of land worth about Rs 100 crore,” said BBMP’s assistant executive engineer, Shivakumar of the Vidyaranyapura sub-division, adding that the demolitions would continue on Friday as well. Many of the people on Vidyaranyapura Main Road, who have lost a large portion of their properties for encroaching on the raja kaluve here, fear they could lose even more once the civic agency embarks on road widening in the area. “We have lost 33 feet of our property to the drain and could lose whatever is left during the proposed road widening under Transferable Development Rights (TDR),” said ne upset property owner, K. R. Muniraju.
As angry property owners and traders cursed the government and their fate, neighbours offered sympathy and provided them food and space to dump their goods."My house is on the second floor and I cannot access it as the stairs have been demolished. Neighbours offered me food and allowed me to use their toilets,” said one property owner, Padmavathi.
A few residents, who lost their homes, were able to salvage their windows, grills, door frames and other detachable parts as the demolition stopped mid-way and the earthmovers were called to a different location to bring down a three-storied residential structure on the drain.
‘Reclaim, secure, preserve’
Chairman of the legislature committee on encroachment of lake beds, K. B. Koliwad is all for evicting such encroachers on a war-footing, even if they are politicians or major builders.
“Active demolition of encroachments on lakes is just the beginning.The BBMP has a herculean task before it and a long way to go before it can channel the rain water effectively and arrest flooding,” he said, adding, “Reclaiming, securing and preserving should be the mantra of the government. After reclaiming the lakes and drains they should be secured to ensure that the encroachers don’t return after a few days. As far as the lakes are concerned they should be fenced and revived.”
Noting that a drafting committee had given some valuable suggestions on improving the condition of lakes and to ensure flow of treated water, he said t the legislature committee had environment experts on board who too could give their scientific inputs for reclaiming wetlands.
Mr. Koliwad revealed the legislature committee was currently taking stock of the STPs functioning across the city and a meeting had been convened with the BWSSB to get more details about them, such as the money required to set up more of them across the city and keep its lakes safe from sewage.
‘Demolish, restore, rejuvenate’
“Did encroachers care about the distress they were causing hundreds and thousands of people ? Then why should people sympathise with them?” demanded Mr T. V. Ramachandra of the Indian Institute of Science, categorically stating that encroachments on Storm Water Drains (SWD), the buffer zone and lakes should be mercilessly demolished irrespective of who they belonged to in the interest of preventing flooding in the city and giving its lakes a fresh lease of life.
“It is necessary to go about things methodically to ensure that government land and water bodies are reclaimed. The first step is to clear encroachments on Storm Water Drain (SWD), and the second should be to secure the restored areas and finally the authorities must act to rejuvenate the lakes by installing Sewerage Treatment Plants (STP),” he suggested.
“The entire city knows that encroachments of drains and lakes are causing all the flooding and so no encroacher, be it a builder, a poor man, politician or immigrant from Indonesia, should be spared. Of course, there are a few innocents ,who have been taken for a ride by builders, but officials too are guilty of allowing these encroachments. Demolition is the only solution as pointed out by the report submitted by the IISc,” the scientist added.
“Even encroachments by politicians should be reduced to a rubble. We have heard them and elected them. Being custodians of our natural resources, it is their duty to protect them and not loot them,” he stressed. Besides setting up STPs, he suggests construction of algae ponds to remove impurities and metals from lakes. “This is a natural remedial process,” he explained.
- The demolition drive will come to a halt between Friday and Monday owing to the coming government holidays. People, whose buildings have been marked for demolition, have been given the three days to salvage their belongings , according to BBMP officers.
- St. Philomena’s school declared a half day holiday for its students as the entire area was engulfed in dust from the demolitions taking place close by.
- Debris from the demolished buildings was carried in trucks and dumped in the Bellahalli quarry.
The man who lost his cotton and the homeless banker
A mattress trader lost cotton bales worth lakhs as the BBMP brought down his shop without giving him time to remove them on Vidyaranyapura Main Road Thursday. Mr Raju Kulayappa got yelled at by the BBMP’s task force officials when he tried to hastily shift sacks of cotton bales in the morning as the earthmovers had already reached his shop by then.
“They abused me for not having removed them on Wednesday and did not allow me to carry the 85 or so sacks of cotton bales worth Rs 2 lakh to safety before they began the demolition,” complained Mr Kulayappa, explaining that having taken loans to buy the cotton bales for making his mattresses, he had presumed that some portion of his shop would be spared and so did not remove the sacks on Wednesday. “But the authorities not only bulldozed my entire shop, but also my cotton bales,” he lamented.
State Bank of Mysore employee, K.R. Muniraju, 53, sent his family away to his father-in-law’s house in Munireddypalaya as he got ready for the BBMP’s bulldozers to arrive. With the demolitions temporarily halting as the earthmovers were called away to a different spot, Mr Muniraju used the opportunity to hurriedly salvage windows and door frames along with grills and detachable items of his house. Later, both he and his mother, Jayalakshmi sat with tear- filled eyes taking a last look at their house , which they built in 1999 with dreams of making a secure future for themselves. But sadly, their hopes have literally come crashing down.
BMTF registers complaint against 20 officials for plan violations
Following directions from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) has registered First Information Report (FIRs) against 20 officials of BBMP and BDA for sanctioning building plan and khatas for houses and apartments against the law and allowing them to build on raja kaluves. Owners of the buildings which had encroached storm water drains too have been named in the FIR.
Deccan Chronicle has access to the copies of the FIR where BBMP commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad has lodged complainant against erring officials. The tainted officials have been booked under various sections, 192 (A) & (B) of Karnataka Land Revenue (KLR) Act section 436 (A) of Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act and sections 217, 432, 434, 441, 427, 420 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Section 192-A of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964 deals with the offences relating to the Government lands while Section 436 (A) of KMC pertains to penalty for unlawful buildings. Further, Section 217 of IPC deals with public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture.
