House panel member encroaches lake land for kin's realty project

BJP MLA among four who misused 33 guntas of Uttarahalli lake

It’s a case of fence eating the crop. Bengaluru South MLA M Krishnappa (BJP), who is a member of the Legislature Panel to look into the encroachment of lakes, has encroached at least three guntas of the Uttarahalli lake in his Assembly constituency.

In October 2009, Krishnappa entered into a joint venture with Rainbow Properties, owned by his daughter Reshma Supreeth and son-in-law Supreeth Suresh, to construct Rainbow Apartments abutting Uttarahalli lake.

The Bengaluru Urban district authorities slapped a notice on January 13 this year to the Rainbow Properties, asking them why not the encroachment be removed.

The MLA is one among the four people who have reportedly encroached 33 guntas of the lake land. The other three people who have been served notices for encroaching upon Uttarahalli lake in Survey number 111 of Uttarahalli village in Bengaluru South Taluk are Chandramma of Poornaprajna House Building Cooperative Society (six guntas) Narayana Rao, Vasanth Kumar and others (six guntas) and Srinivas Murthy and others (18 guntas).

When contacted, Krishnappa said the Rainbow Apartment Owners Association has encroached on the lake land and not the Rainbow Properties.

“The Association has developed a lawn and planted some trees outside the apartment for which an objection is raised. Our compound wall is outside the lake boundary. If you want, we will remove the lawn and trees,” Krishnappa told Deccan Herald.

A local Congress leader Uttarahalli Nagaraj sought to know, “if the lake boundary is adjacent to the compound wall of the apartment, then where is the buffer zone of the lake?”

He also raised questions over the width of the road in front of the Rainbow Apartment. “The width of the road from the Uttarahalli Circle to the beginning of the apartment is just 40 feet. Suddenly, we find 150-foot wide road in front of the apartment abutting the lake. Again from the Arehalli Arch to Poornaprajna Layout, the width of the road is just 40 feet. From where did the extra 110 feet of land for road come? We know for sure that a large portion of the water body was filled to widen the road to get an increased Floor Area Ratio (FAR),” said Nagaraj.

Deccan Herald is in possession of a letter by the BBMP Horticulture Department to the Rainbow Owners' Association, saying that it never objects to the removal of a lawn, palm trees and other greenery outside the apartment.

No action
Documents show that one of the other encroachers Srinivas Murthy too denied the charges of encroaching upon the Uttarahalli lake.

The then Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao had recommended dismissal of Krishnappa as MLA, saying that he misused his position to denotify close to two acres of land where the Rainbow Apartment was built. However, Governor Vajubhai Vala turned down the recommendation.