A tale of two crises: BMTF confronts flood of illegal connections and drought of action

Activists pointed to a number of flaws in the BMTF and opined that there is a need to revamp the organisation since it has failed to take proactive steps in protecting the government’s assets.

Over the last five years, the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) has handled close to 309 cases and surprisingly the majority of the cases pertain to illegal water connections. While the BMTF was constituted with the main objective of protecting government land and removing encroachments, only 50 such cases have been taken up so far and the BMTF has been successful in recovering close to 1,000 acres of land. 

The BMTF officials maintain that the large number of illegal water connection cases was due to the nature of the complaint. “It is easier and more rampant across the city. Hence there are more complaints on illegal water connection,” Seemanth Kumar Singh, ADGP, BMTF, told DH. 

However, complainants and activists pointed to a number of flaws in the system and opined that there is a need to revamp the organisation since it has failed to take proactive steps in protecting the government’s assets.  

N R Ramesh, former BBMP Councillor, said that the majority of his complaints have not been addressed and the institution has failed to deliver justice.

“Of the 81 complaints I have filed with BMTF, 63 of them have not been addressed and are pending with them. The officials show no will in disposing of these cases and there is hardly any action on the encroachers,” he said.

While the delay in investigating is a problem, Amaresh, a RTI activist said that the bigger problem was that the BMTF many times closed off cases without the consent of the complainant.

“At least three of my complaints have been closed by just filing a B report. They have not contacted me or briefed me on why the case was closed. As a complainant, I have the right to know why the case was closed. But, BMTF does not follow any of these procedures,” he said. 

Most of the petitioners pointed out rampant corruption at the lower levels and opined that the system needs to be cleaned up. 

“Whenever there is a case, they call the person or establishment against whom there is a complaint and threaten them with action. Many of the officers voluntarily offer to close the case, demanding a bribe. Hence, BMTF is not able to perform,” N R Ramesh said. 

Pointing out how corrupt the officials in the department are, Rangaswamy N K, a city-based advocate who has filed a petition with the state information commission against the BMTF for denying information under the RTI Act, said that many officials even demand bribes for cases which do not even fall under the jurisdiction of BMTF.

“For instance, complaints on violation of building bye-laws do not come under their jurisdiction. But in many cases, they receive the complaint and unnecessarily send a notice to the builder and demand a bribe. This is the level of corruption,” he said.

Rangaswamy, pointing out that he was denied information on the nature of complaints and action taken, said that there was no transparency in the organisation. 

“I have now filed an appeal with the state information commission. If there were no misdeeds, they should be open to providing the information since it is a public entity. Failure to put the data in the public domain shows that a lot is happening inside the organisation,” he said.