474 illegal shops shut in residential areas

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) now claims, in the past 15 days it has shut down 474 illegal commercial establishments functioning in residential areas across the city.

The civic body had scrambled its officials to work, soon after an order from the deputy chief minister, G Parameshwara, to shut down commercial establishments in residential areas that violate zoning regulations.

According to the latest data, 120 shops were shut in the East zone that covers Indiranagar, HAL II Stage and III Stage. East zone residents have been fighting against the commercial establishments violating zoning regulations for a long time now.

Meanwhile, in West and South zones, officials shut down 88 and 82 businesses respectively. In Yelahanka, 82 establishments had to shut shop.

BBMP has so far issued a total of 8,493 notices to commercial establishments across all the zones in the city.

“We have issued notices to establishments in violation of zoning regulations in the past. But now, we are not obliged to issue notices, and we are directly shutting down shops as we also have a court order to do the same,” said Manoranjan Hegde, chief health officer, BBMP. However, some East zone residents believe that the numbers put out by the BBMP is just another attempt at showing things on paper. This does not reflect on the ground, they say.

“We are disappointed at the officials, as this looks like an attempt to show some records to the deputy chief minister. It is nothing more than an eyewash,” said Swarna Venkataraman, an East zone resident.

Though the Karnataka High Court had issued notices to the BBMP to shut down shops in 2016, there was no strict action then. “There was a lot of resistance from the shop owners, and in some cases, with the help of local corporators and MLAs, some establishments were back in business in just a few hours. This time, we are not letting anyone open shops. If they do, strict measures will be taken,” said chief health officer Hegde.