'29 of 53 tech parks in B'luru sitting on SWDs'

Former corporator and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader N R Ramesh on Wednesday released a long list of politicians and their proxy builders, who he said have built residential and commercial complexes on the stormwater drains.

At a press conference, Ramesh said as many as 29 of 53 tech parks in the city and 2,300 apartments of 25 prominent builders are sitting on the stormwater drains.

“More than 150 IT-BT firms, 30 malls and multiplexes are within the buffer zone of drains and lakes. Most of the builders have diverted the SWDs,” said Ramesh.

He alleged that the state government and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike were targeting only the poor and the middle-class families while letting the big fish off the hook.

“There are malls, apartments, tech parks on the stormwater drains but the government did not target them. Only the poor and middle-class are being victimised,” said Ramesh.

He said, the government is hesitating to target mega structures as a few influential politicians in the state have stakes in them. The leniency towards the builder lobby has only strengthened the public perception that the government is looking for soft targets, the BJP leader added.

“There's a High Court order to clear the encroachment of rajakaluve. Fearing a backlash from the court following the recent flash floods, the government acted in a jiffy,” said Ramesh.

He added that the Palike did not bother to serve the eviction notice on the poor and thereby give them some time to relocate whereas builders were given chance to obtain injunctions from the court.

The BJP leader termed the survey of SWDs in Bengaluru flawed saying that the structures on SWD is more than 14,000 and not 1,923, as claimed by the BBMP.

He also released a list of 65 officials, who issued wrong permissions and Khatha to build apartments, commercial complexes and layouts.