Land sharks eye a slice of Narasipura lake; pressure Palike to give up claim

A year after the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) spent Rs 1.68 crore to develop the Narasipura Kere on Vidyaranyapura Main Road as a model lake, land grabbers are back in business.

In cahoots with the revenue officials, land sharks are allegedly attempting to meddle with the survey sketches and have been pressuring the BBMP officials to give up their claims on the encroached portion of the lake.

When the lake was handed over to the BBMP some years ago, it was in a pathetic state due to encroachment and sewage inflow.

After many correspondences by the BBMP officials, the Bangalore North Additional (Yelahanka) tahsildar surveyed the lake through official surveyors and handed over its certified map to the BBMP.

The map showed that the extent of the lake in Sy No 20 of the Narasipura lake is 15 acres and 30 guntas, but at least three sites have come up as part of a BDA-approved layout. The owners of the sites had built a compound wall to protect their properties. The sketch also showed a temple encroaching upon a small portion of the lake.

Based on the survey map, the BBMP engineers demolished the compound wall of the three sites but retained the temple. The Palike carried out the development plan in two phases.
As part of the first phase, the BBMP fenced the lake, de-silted it, diverted sewage inflow, constructed the tank bund and walkway around it at a cost of Rs 1.68 crore. The second phase included improvement of waste weir and development of a park on a piece of government land adjacent to it.

Programme stayed

However, those who lost their sites reportedly approached the High Court and got a stay on the entire lake development programme.

What surprised the BBMP officials was that recently the tahsildar asked the Palike to carry out a joint survey afresh.

“When a survey has already happened and a sketch has been prepared, where is the need for another survey and a fresh map?” asked a Palike official requesting anonymity.

Palike sources said there were attempts to meddle with the survey sketch and show the three sites and a large portion of the lake land as part of Sy No 18 and 19 and not Sy No 20, which is a lake.