Protests halt Palike's plans to renovate KR Market

Vehement protests forced the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to defer its plans to evict encroachers at the KR Market to Monday.

The Palike officials on Friday went to clear encroachments, to begin renovation work, as per the BBMP Council’s decision. The traders who had encroached upon the pavements, resisted the move. Before the situation would go out of control, local MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan intervened and convinced the traders that the proposed work would not affect their business. He sought the Palike officials to give them time to vacate.

The BBMP officials reportedly told the MLA and the encroachers that the property belongs to the Palike and those encroaching upon it have not paid any tax or rent to the civic agency for the past 30 years. They also accused the traders of causing damage to the building and obstructing its improvement.
 They told the MLA that the remodelling of the building was necessary to utilise the entire space of the structure. At present, about 1.5 lakh sqft of area is unused and if the redesigning of the structure is done, the entire space could be utilised in the best possible way.

Later, the Palike officials as well as the encroachers agreed to pave way for renovation and evict the encroached portion by Monday so that the work could be started.

Some local traders who have been granted shops inside the building hailed Mayor B S Satyanarayana for renovating KR Market. 

He said the encroachment should be removed if the structure has to be given a facelift.In December last year, eminent architect Naresh Venkataraman and Prakash Belawadi gave a power point presentation in the BBMP Council on renovating the KR Market. 

They claimed that they would neither demolish any portion of the building, nor would they acquire any private property. All that they would require is the existing encroached portion of the building. The BBMP Council was convinced to start the work.