BDA 'misled' govt on layout formation on lake bed

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) officials “misled” the State government over the formation of a residential layout on a lake bed in Gubbalala village in Uttarahalli hobli, according to documents obtained by Deccan Herald under an RTI application.

Documents show that the proposal prepared 10 years ago indicated the Venkatarayana Lake in survey No 8 of Gubbalala village as a government kharaab land. The proposal was submitted to the State government to acquire land for Banashankari 6th Stage Extension and the government notified it in the gazette.

The BDA officers referred to some records, which they claimed showed the lake as kharaab, whereas they set aside the records of Rights, Tenancy and Crop (RTC), which even today shows it to be a government lake. Documents suggest that the BDA officials did not bother to check which land they were acquiring for forming a layout.

It is learnt that the Chief Executive Officer of the Lake Development Authority had raised an alarm over ‘dumping of debris in a lake near the Gubbalala Gate’ about 11 years ago. 

He had written to various civic agencies to prevent abuse of the water body, but to no avail. 

The dumping allegedly was part of a larger conspiracy by the BDA to form a layout for the economically and socially backward classes without any provision for lung space.

The BDA has held Assistant Executive Engineer B A Krishnappa and Assistant Engineer Fredric D’Souza responsible for the formation of the lake bed layout. 

As the BDA 6th Stage Extension is replete with illegalities, the BDA Board has not yet approved the layout plan even after 10 years of its formation.

A senior officer in the Bangalore Urban district office, on the condition of anonymity, said that the district administration was aware of that survey No 8 of Gubbalala was undoubtedly a lake till 10 years ago. He, however, expressed his helplessness to scrap it, as some ‘bigwigs’ were involved in the mischief.