As BDA creates KG Layout, its old areas cry for attention

Residents of 4 layouts bear the brunt as basic amenities elude them

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has embarked on the mega Kempegowda Layout project near Kengeri, offering 5,000 sites.

But the Authority, which is ‘credited’ with ruining many tanks and their stormwater drains, has hardly taken note of the status of its four other mega layouts - Vrushabhavathi near Jakkur, Anjanapura on Kanakapura Road, Banashankari 6th stage on Kengeri-Uttarahalli Main Road and Visvesvaraya Layout near Nagarabhavi - which are crying for attention.

Take for instance, Anjanapura. Spread over hundreds of acres of land, the entire layout looks ghostly with no human habitation. Located at a high altitude, the layout does not have parks, playgrounds, water or proper sewage connections. It has become a haven for those indulging in wheelies and other anti-social activities. Some people who have built houses here have no option but to stay here. They had secured the sites at subsidised rates. But their financial position does not allow them to buy sites elsewhere.

Ramaiah, a resident of a locality close to Anjanapura, says he has a site there, but cannot move there as there are no facilities.

“There is no water connection and digging a borewell is not an option in the rocky terrains of this layout. The water table is quite low,” says Ramaiah. Criminal activities reported in the area make it impossible to build a house there, he adds.

Anand Yadawad, who lives nearby, says the BDA never bothered to improve the area.

The story of Banashankari 6th stage is no different, except for the fact that it does not have too much of rocky surface. The layout had come to the limelight for the wrong reasons when BDA had even acquired portions of the Turahalli forest and illegally created a layout on the Venkatarayanakere tank.

Yugandhar, who works with a private firm and has a house there, says BDA officials are least concerned about improving this layout.

“More than 15 years after the formation of this layout, BDA did not provide us drinking water, let alone parks, playgrounds or other recreation centres,” says Yugandhar.

Vrushabhavathi Layout and Visvesvaraya Layout are also in bad shape.  All these layouts are mired in controversies relating to denotification of land (acquiring land from land owners and denotifying them to benefit people in power). There are many litigations pending in court pertaining to acquisition, denotification and fraud by people at the helm.