Bengaluru demolition: Hapless, poverty-stricken citizens want justice

Bengaluru: Hundreds of people with property around Sarakki Lake had watched helplessly as their homes and their faith in the system collapsed all at once. “All I want now is justice,” said Ramachandra, as he stood before the broken remains of his ancestral property. Next door, his brother’s property has been almost completely razed to the ground – Ramachandra certainly seems to have had the better deal. “We inherited the land from our grandfather,” he said, a note of resignation in his voice. “When we decided to construct, during the S.M. Krishna government, a survey was done and we complied with the boundaries given to us. Now, the government has decided that the survey was incorrect – that it had been done by the British – and was no longer valid.”

Like most others in the area, Ramachandra is enraged by news of Dollar’s Colony also being a lakebed. “Why aren’t they being caught,” he asked, gesturing also to the massive apartment complex that lies on the other side, almost on the lakebed.” “The government doesn’t want the rich and the powerful to be angry with them. I don’t want a single rupee from the authorities, I don’t even want my land back. What I do want is to see the rich being punished in the same way as the poor.”

A month after the Urban Administration Department’s demolition drive, the Sarakki Lakebed still looks like it has been ravaged by an earthquake. Mountains of debris lie across the road and although some shops have returned to business in the broken buildings, a definite eeriness hangs in the air. Skeletons of what used to be houses remain – buildings with gaping holes in the facade, revealing the remnants bedrooms and toilets – greet people passing through the area.

Interestingly, the authorities completed their demolition drive and left the citizens to deal with the debris. “I spent Rs 20,000 on clearing the rubble,” he said. “I can’t afford this, I have two children who are studying. I did the remainder of the demolition work myself, which cost about '1 lakh. Reconstruction will cost five more. I had pawned the family’s gold to raise money for this building.”

What remains is a ghost town. After waiting outside what appeared to be the front door of a house for about five minutes, it turned out that one entire side had been demolished - the house is now empty. A caretaker couple live in another similar ruin of what was once a paying guest accommodation. Ramesh (name changed) scrambles over debris and leaps over a precarious little precipice – if he misses his footing, sharp blocks of granite await him at the bottom. Inside, empty rooms are filled with dust and rubble, one misstep could mean an injury.

The owner, Jayaram Naidu, said the property had been with them for 30 years. “They said it was dry land and that we could construct,” he said. “I have all my papers in place, but the court refused to grant us a stay. The site number and the survey number had been changed over the years and we had nobody to turn to at that point. We’re going to court.” Faith in the justice system seems to have collapsed along with their homes. “We had a stay order from the court,” said Ramachandra. “Despite this, my building was broken down.” Shanthamma, another resident of the area, echoes what has now become a sort of refrain. “The houses of the rich have been left untouched, while the properties of the poor have been destroyed. Why are they only targeting us?”

‘Why biggies, rich people not touched?’

“Whenever politicians do something, there are political connotations,” said urban expert R.K. Misra, as he talked about the Urban Administration Department's demolition project. “With the current drive against lake bed encroachments, the big question is ‘why aren’t the big guys being touched?’ The media should name a few of the big names involved in encroachment, and public pressure will stir the government into action.”

The demolition drives taking place across the city have left hundreds of people homeless, as they watch a lifetime’s worth of dreams being reduced to dust. The human stories are heartbreaking, but when one gets down to the larger question of what is right and wrong - should we fault the Urban Administration for its decision?

“Not everybody who has lost their homes is innocent,” said Ashwin Mahesh, former member, ABIDe. “A lot of people took a chance on the illegalities, never expecting the government to evict so many people. They took a bet, which they lost.” Still, the question on everybody’s mind, ‘why us’? “For people who are not involved in the corruption or were led unwittingly into buying government land, it’s a fair question. The CM has said that officials who facilitated the sales in these areas will also be hauled up. We’re always told that government employees will be caught later, but the citizens are being punished right now.”

Also, as the big real estate players have remained untouched, those who have been affected by the demolition drive are willing to call it a political farce. “The government is not interested in bringing offenders to book because politicians’ names will surface in the scams. It’s highly likely that MLAs and corporators are involved in this. The MLA and corporator tactic is to have the tahsildars draw up ‘hosa surveys’, which is just another term for redrawing boundaries!”

There are three approaches to the demolition drive, said urban evangelist V. Ravichandar. “First, the appeal of the BDA property is the clean title. It has a step-by-step acquisition process and all your papers will be in order. This has led to a serious erosion of confidence among citizens. The sites were allotted according to the Land Acquisition Act and there was a provision saying dried up lakes could be used for construction purposes.”

Private properties encroaching lake beds and government land, however, is a different matter. “Those who have done so knowingly should be hauled up. As a point of principle, action should be taken against these people. It’s necessary to show that there is rule of law in the city.”  

The root cause of this problem is that there is not enough legal housing. A person with, say, Rs 12 lakh in hand, won’t find a house anywhere. He is offered an illegal construction and left with two choices – take an encroached property or go without a house. Which does he choose? If there is more affordable, legal housing, half the problem will go away. The government should also put up the lake boundaries. If the rules are in the public domain, ignorance will stop being an excuse for encroachment.