Encroachments on lakes across Karnataka to go soon

Bengaluru: Once encroachments over storm water drains are cleared, the government plans to concentrate on removing illegal constructions from lake beds and tank catchment areas across the state as part of  its ongoing demolition drive.

Revealing this here on Tuesday,  Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra told reporters  that the extent of catchment area and buffer zone to be cleared of  encroachments had not been decided as yet.

“But we will begin the demolitions  soon,” he asserted, explaining that this had become essential to revive the tanks and lakes and improve the fast depleting groundwater table in view of the recurring drought. As for Tamil Nadu calling  a bandh over the Cauvery issue, he declared it  would not succeed in its tactics.

“Let it  build a dam at Hogenikal as this will prevent upto 100 tmc ft of water flowing into the sea from the  Cauvery river during the monsoon,” he suggested, deploring that the neighbouring state was asking for water for irrigation despite having a storage of over 34 tmc ft water in its reservoirs.  The minister also said 26 assistant engineers of the minor irrigation department had been suspended for committing irregularities in award of piece contracts.

As a result, it had now been decided to float tenders even for piece work over '5 lakh and avoid such problems, he added. Asked about the appointment of a new Lokayukta, Mr Jaychandra said  the government was looking into it.  “If the Governor had accepted Mr  S R Nayak for the post, there would not have been any problem,” he noted.

‘Govt targeting only poor’
Even after having proper documents to substantiate encroachments made by influential people and big builders, the state government is trying to protecting them under the pretext of resurvey, said N.R. Ramesh, BJP leader.

In an open letter addressed to the Chief Minister on Tuesday, the BJP leader said, "Poor people have become the target. There is no action against the encroachments done by big builders.”

He  said, “The ongoing demolition drive is to remove encroachments on drains connecting one lake to another. But government properties to a tune of Rs 1,20,000 crore have been encroached upon by the big builders and we see no action initiated against them,” Ramesh said and added this attitude of the government clearly shows that the present government is run on the mercy of builder mafia.

NBF to help victims of demolition
“I woke up one morning to realise that my life was being taken away from me. My beloved dream home is in a shambles and I silently stood watching my life fall apart. My 10 years’ of savings and 15 years’ of loan was made to bite dust. How do I overcome this trauma?”

“I sell milk and run a newspaper agency to make a living. For 25 years I worked hard to buy a 20*30 plot. At 55, I am still repaying the loan taken to construct my home. Now, my life has come to the street. And I’m not going to live for another 25 years to buy a plot. But the government did not think about people like me at all.” These were the voices of a cross section of victims from different strata of the society, who lost their homes during the recent BBMP demolition drive against encroachment of raja kaluves.

These victims got an opportunity to share their problems and sign a petition requesting the CM to intervene. From Wednesday the Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) will organise centres in each zone to understand the ground reality of this ongoing demolition drive. The NBF hopes to engage citizens and gather information about multiple issues that have made news recently.