Deadline for submitting report on lake grab extended

Legislative Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad has extended the deadline till November 30 this year for submitting the final report of the House committee set up to look into encroachments of lakes in Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts.

The earlier deadline for submitting the report was July 31 this year. The committee was set up in 2014. It had subsequently released survey sketches of 4,205 lakes and water bodies located in the two districts, identifying encroachments. The panel had named many big builders, noted educational institutions, government agencies such as Bengaluru Development Authority as encroachers of these lakes. But it has been delaying submitting its final report.

The committee had identified 10,472 acres of encroachments, the total value of which was estimated at a whopping Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Interestingly, Koliwad himself is the chairman of the 11-member committee.

Koliwad had a few months ago said that the final report will have 64 volumes, covering 32 hoblis in the two districts.