Survey to gauge Chikkalasandra Lake encroachment begins

The Bangalore Urban District administration on Wednesday started the process of reclaiming Chikkalasandra Lake in Padmanabha Nagar, which was completely taken over by the land sharks illegally.

Many houses, schools, a bus stand, various types of shops including hardware ones, temples and various other structures had come up on the lake in survey number 76 of Chikkalasandra village in Uttarahalli Hobli on 18th Main Road of Padmanabha Nagar in Bangalore South Taluk.

While the Citizens’ Action Forum (CAF), a consortium of some 150-odd Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWA), lodged a complaint with the Lokayukta a month ago, the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) took up the case suo motu soon after Deccan Herald published a report on August 17 under the title, “Illegal takeover of a lake bed.”

As the pressure was building up on the district authorities, the Bangalore South Tahsildar Dr Dayananda on Wednesday took up the survey of the lake bed based on the 2010 survey sketch prepared by the Taluk surveyor.

There was stiff resistance to the survey work but due to the heavy police presence, encroachers could not muster courage to interrupt the district authorities. Tahsildar Dayananda said the survey would take at least two more days. Once the survey is done, the encroachers would be identified and notices served on them.

It is learnt that the Additional Director General of the BMTF, T Sunil Kumar, had warned the Tahsildar to reclaim the lake land at the earliest possible and had strictly instructed him to finish the survey work in a week along with issuing notices to the lake land encroachers.

The Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash Adi too has sought a detailed report including the action taken report from the Bangalore South Tahsildar.

Bescom in action

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) too has swung into action following a complaint by S Ravikumar, a local activist. He had sought to know how the electricity was provided to the illegal houses on the tank bed.

Based on his complaint, the Chief General Manager of Bescom sought explanation from the Superintending Engineer of the Bangalore South Circle to examine the subject matter and initiate necessary action as per the Bescom norms and furnish compliance report to him at the earliest.