Site allotment to VIPs on lakebed in Dollars Colony to be verified

Bengaluru Urban district incharge Minister Ramalinga Reddy said on Tuesday that the government would verify as to how Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had allotted sites to 410 VIPs in Dollars Colony, JP Nagar, without ascertaining that it was the bed of Linganahalli lake.

Reddy said that the Deputy Commissioner’s office had already begun issuing show-cause notices to the VVIPs. While talking tough about the encroachments by private parties and private layouts on lake beds, Reddy softened his stance over the allotment of sites to the VIPs by BDA.

“We have to ascertain as to how the BDA could have done such a thing. We will ascertain the facts before going forward with any action,” he said. Reddy said that a few residents in Dollars Colony had already come to meet him, with concerns over the notices issued to them.

According to JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, who convened a separate press conference on Tuesday, the list of VVIPs who have homes constructed on the lake bed include former BJP ministers C M Udasi and Shobha Karandlaje, retired IAS officer I M Vittalamurthy and a senior High Court judge.

Kumaraswamy dared the government to first act against those who have built their homes on the Linganahalli lake bed, before demolishing homes of poor and middleclass citizens. The JD(S) leader said the lake was a live one, as per the S Lakshman Rao committee report on the encroachment of lakes. “A lake - which was live in 1986 and for which a government order was issued that it should not be touched - was approved as a layout in 1997. How is it possible?” he said.

Kumaraswamy added that if the government still wanted to revive the lake, it should denotify land to the extent of 76 acres of Jakkur lake and 75 acres of Dasanapura lake from the 1,760 acres of Arkavathi layout notified under the re-do scheme.