Houses on tankbed won’t be demolished: K J George

Bengaluru: Bengaluru city development and city planning minister K.J. George has ruled out eviction of people living in 3,230 houses built on tank areas ‘temporarily’ till the department concerned makes correction in the original city plan.

Replying to Mr V.S. Ugrappa (Congress) in the Legislative Council on Thursday, the minister said 3,230 houses were constructed in 23 layouts which have come up tank areas. Of the 3,230 sites, 304 were yet to be sold. These layouts were formed by BDA many years ago by treating land as ‘kharab’.

In the meantime, the Supreme Court had given a direction for removal of dwellings that have come up on tank areas. In the wake of this, deputy commissioner of Bengaluru (Urban) had been asked to find out the characteristics of tanks on which houses have come up and recommend to the revenue department to delete the word ‘tank’ in the original documents.

This was being done as per Section 69 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. The urban development would take necessary steps once the deputy commissioner submits his observation to the government.

Mr George said the dwellings had been legalised but to set the records right, changes should be made to the original revenue records. Till then, the government has no plans to evict those living in these houses. The decision regarding 304 sites would be taken after discussing the matter with the Chief Minister, the minister said.

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