Turf war of a different kind

The debris of the houses razed wait to be cleared and the residents stare at an uncertain future at the layout that had come up on the once-flourishing Banaswadi lake.

As if mirroring the orphaned plight of the residents, the reclaimed too faces an existential crisis. The dried up lake has turned into a no-man’s land, with the Revenue department and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) washing their hands off the protection and development of the recovered land.

Revenue department officials admit that the lake falls under their ambit. But they assert that it is the duty of BDA to protect the lake bed. “The BDA has to fence the reclaimed encroached properties and make sure that they are not misused,” said Jagannath Reddy, the K R Puram revenue inspector.

Harish Nayak, the Bangalore East division tahsildar, echoes the view. He said, “We just have statutory powers to demolish and conduct survey. Also, we do not have any funds for developing the reclaimed land. Civic agencies such as BDA, Lake Development Authority and   Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike have to take steps to protect the water body. As BDA holds the layout, they are responsible for maintaining it”.   

Nayak said that since there are litigations filed in the court by a few residents, BDA has to take special permission for maintaining the water body.

BDA commissioner T Sham Bhatt said that though BDA had developed the layout, the government was yet to hand over the layout portion to them. The commissioner said, “We have requested the government in this regard. Even if it handed over to us, the ownership of the lake will be with Revenue department, not BDA”.

However, P N Nayak, BDA engineer member, said that they had developed only 14 acres of lake area and that the lake as such did not come under their ambit.

Meanwhile, residents said that the total area of the lake was spread over 45 to 46 acres and not 42.38 acres as claimed by the Revenue department.

The department said that there would not be any auction of demolished sites and that the compensation to the displaced people should come from the government. Hemachandra, an elderly citizen in the area, said that Banaswadi lake was once a full-fledged water body. Rapid urbanisation in the last 15 years had dried it up.

“As per old records of Revenue department, it was about 45–46 acres. The layout came up in 1990s and major portions of it were regularised only after 1996 ,” he said.

Houses will be spared, says DC

Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner V Shankar on Tuesday said he had issued instructions not to disturb houses during the eviction drive taken up at Banaswadi, reports DHNS from Bengaluru.

Speaking to a delegation of BJP leaders and residents of Banaswadi at his office, the DC assured that the houses built on sites allotted by the BDA will also be not touched.
He further said the delegation that he had sent a proposal to the government to take action against officials who had created fake documents to sell land on lakebeds.

The delegation of BJP legislators comprising Suresh Kumar, Ashwanthnarayana (MLC) and  Jagadish Kumar visited Banaswadi and interacted with residents whose houses had been demolished.

Speaking to reporters, Suresh Kumar said the government should come up with a new legislation to provide rehabilitation and relief to innocent people who were duped by real estate firms by selling  illegal plots on encroached lakebed.

He said the provision of the legislation can be discussed at a special session of the State legislature. . “In the name of court orders, the government has been targetting the helpless and the poor, who had invested their lifetime savings buying plots or constructing houses. The BJP will continue its agitation till the government relents and comes to the rescue of the evicted,” he added.