Big-ticket builders, firms among lake encroachers in Bengaluru

Govt agencies among violators

With the Legislative Assembly committee on lake encroachment on Friday releasing names of certain big builders who have encroached upon lake lands in Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts, the revenue authorities initiated action against the encroachers.

Prestige Group, Brigade Group, Sobha Developers, DS Max, Adarsh Developers, Oberoi Group, Bagmane Tech Park and Valmark Group are among 25 developers and companies named by the 11-member committee headed by senior Congress MLA K B Koliwad.

The committee also released new survey sketches of all 1,545 lakes with 11,595 names of encroachers. Of the total 57,576.17 acres of lake land in the two districts, 10,472.34 acres worth about Rs 1.50 lakh crore have been encroached.

A number of government agencies have also encroached upon the lakes. As many as 1,243 acres have been encroached by government agencies, including Bangalore Development Authority (to the extent of 484 acres). “The Authority has encroached about 97 acres covering 18 lakes without even following the procedure. The BDA has formed layouts on the lakes. I know the property owners (BDA allottees) have not encroached the lakes. The officials are at fault. So, direction has been issued to file criminal cases against the erring officials,” Koliwad said after releasing the names.

Interestingly, Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa is one of the aggrieved BDA site allottees. A BDA site allotted to him in Dollars’ Colony was part of a lake. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, too, had a site in Dollars' Colony, which he  sold recently.

“The committee is not targeting only big names who have encroached lakes. Notices are being issued to all the encroachers.

January 31, 2016 is the last date for replying to the notice. The committee will make appropriate recommendations to the government based on the response from the encroachers,” Koliwad said and added that the last date may be extended, if necessary.

The revenue department has set up two committees, one headed by tahsildars and another by assistant commissioners, to issue show cause notice to the encroachers as to why they should not be evicted. The survey sketches of lakes prepared by the Department of Survey Settlement and Land Records (DSSLR) is available on:

http://landrecords.karnataka.gov.in/revenuemaps/lakesurvey.aspx. The Assembly will also upload scanned copies of the sketches on its website.

The committee has only released names of some builders and companies accused of encroaching the lakes. But it has not given any details such as names of the lakes encroached by them, extent and the purpose for which the  encroached land has been put to. In some cases, the panel has only released names of apartment complexes, without the name of the builder.