Drain encroachment clearance to begin in Yelahanka

Drawing flak from the public, activists and the state government over the delay in clearing encroachments on stormwater drains, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will take up a demolition drive during this week. The crackdown, according to BBMP, will start from Yelahanka and East Zone areas of Bengaluru to prevent flooding during monsoon.

Following the delay in clearing the encroachments, Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar had rapped BBMP officials and set a seven-month deadline to the civic body to clear 1,741 identified encroachments along these drains in various parts of the city. The mater was taken up during the recent inter-departmental coordination meeting where BBMP officials submitted that out of the 2,515 encroachments, they could clear only 620.

The officials had also submitted that as many as 124 encroachments were dropped from the list due to change in the village map besides about 1,741 encroachments requiring to be altered. The chief secretary had ordered the removal of at least 250 encroachments every month and complete the work in seven months. Though the BBMP had rued that it had a shortage of surveyors, the issue was resolved after the Joint Director of Land Revenue (JDLR), the custodian of the drains, assigned surveyors to identify the extent of encroachments.

B S Prahlad, chief engineer, stormwater drains, BBMP said, “We have been asked to clear 250 encroachments every month so that we meet the listed 1,741 encroachments in seven months. We have also been directed to work in coordination with the JDLR as they identified more encroachments during their surveys.”