Bengaluru: MLA, BBMP officials spar, bus shelter becomes a casualty for third time
Bengaluru: For the third time in less than a year, the Doopanahalli bus shelter was razed down by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials along with the police on Friday late night, raising question as to who razed the bus shelter on May 27 and December 4.
On Friday, around midnight, the BBMP officials including the assistant executive engineer, Vijay Kumar, along with the police bulldozed the Doopanahalli bus shelter that was assembled and installed the same night for the third time by the local MLA S. Raghu and his supporters. The MLA and his men even stood guard to the bus shelter while there was a protest by dozens of Dalit members who supported the BBMP officials who has objected to the installation of bus shelter.
The BBMP officials contend that the bus shelter was installed by the area MLA without taking permission from the corporation and hence it was unauthorized. “We have lodged a complaint at the Jeevan Bhima Nagar police station on the unauthorized bus shelter that was installed without permission,” said John, an Executive Engineer BBMP (East Zone). “It is the BBMP’s Traffic Engineering Cell along with the Advertisement cell that decides, permits and installs bus shelters at designated bus stops within the corporation limits. If private parties are interested, they should approach the above two cells for permission,” he added.
After hearing about the demolition of bus shelter, the miffed MLA rushed to the BBMP Head office on Saturday morning to hand over a petition to the BBMP Administrator and the BBMP Commissioner to install a bus shelter at the Doopanahalli bus stop with the required permission within three days time. “What is wrong in having a bus shelter there, when there is a designated bus stop in the area,” Raghu said. “The bus stop has been there for decades and I had installed it at my own cost for the benefit of the commuters. Each time it cost me over a lakh rupees to install it,” he added.
Expressing surprise over the undue interest shown by the BBMP authorities to raze down the bus shelter, Raghu said, “I doubt the authorities both the BBMP and the police are doing this at the behest of somebody, which I will find out. Why have the authorities been silent over these many years and all of a sudden targeting this shelter over the last few months?”
The BBMP and the BMTC decides the bus stops on all major roads depending on the bus bays available on the roads. There is a bus bay along with a bus stop adjacent to New Horizon School, he pointed out.
