Re-survey of malls, hotel to check for drain encroachment

BBMP commissioner N  Manjunatha Prasad on Wednesday directed the survey settlement and land records department to re-survey two city malls and a hotel that are suspected to have encroached on stormwater drains.

The commissioner held a meeting to discuss stormwater drain encroachment at Malleswaram, IPP Centre, attended by representatives of JW Marriott Hotel, ETA Mall and complainants Samarpana Trust.

“ETA Mall, Orion Mall and Marriott Hotel have been accused of encroaching storm water drains. The parties have filed a petition at the meeting. Hence, re-survey needs to be done of the locations. The survey report must be submitted in a month after which necessary action would be taken,” the commissioner told the survey department.

Shivakumar Hosamani  from Samarpana Trust said ETA Mall has been built on a play ground and Orion Mall has encroached a stormwater drain. He said, “The BBMP officials themselves have acknowledged these facts. This has been proved in the survey also.”

Hosamani rued that the Palike had previously published a list of 1,093 encroachers and removed about 141 encroachments. “Only the poor and middle class were targeted in these operations. The rich and influential, on the other hand, have been protected. Today's meeting was just an eye-wash," he told reporters later.

The mall representatives, meanwhile, said that they have not encroached upon government land and land has been purchased legally. The next meeting is scheduled for January 30.

In the year 2008, Samarpana Trust had filed a complaint against the above two malls and a hotel with BBMP officials. But no action was taken. The trust later approached the high court in August this year seeking directions from BBMP for removal of encroachments.

Based on this, the high court directed BBMP to take action within three months, which did not happen. A contempt of court petition was filed by the trust against the BBMP commissioner on December 14. As a result of this, a meeting took place on Wednesday.

"Orion Mall has encroached upon three acres of land and this has been mentioned in the survey report that was submitted earlier. This time, I will highlight the same thing," joint director, Land Records, Jayaprakash, said.