The BBMP’s demolition drive has come under fire. First of all the maps are not fully reliable. Majorly, the principle of inter-connected lakes is established in them. But the actual paths of the kaluves between the lakes are not all available as the maps were made individually for villages. Are officials bulldozing in the absence of valid maps? Why doesn’t BBMP touch the big fish? These are the questions haunting citizens.
After a major controversy over the alignment of Storm Water Drains (SWD), the citizens of Doddabommasandra are questioning the validity of the massive demolitions of structures sitting on the SWD. Are tax-paying citizens supposed to quietly accept the razing of unauthorized structures without valid documents and without proper reasons, question citizens.
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Following a petition by N. Siddalingaiah to direct the officials of the revenue department to furnish the details of the revenue survey, the personnel of the revenue department pleaded that the documents containing these details have been damaged and soiled. On June 13, they also said that it was not possible to retrieve them and that they needed to make a fresh survey, for which they sought an additional six months.
The BBMP authorities have demolished structures on storm water drains, but what about the roads that are constructed over the drains? A concrete road was built on the drain near Gali Anjaneya Temple and in front of Garuda mall. Will the BBMP demolish it? Are they not encroachments?
—Bommasandra residents
Interestingly, within two months, the demolition drive has been taken up by the BBMP, said an advocate B. M. Santosh. However, from August 10 itself, bulldozers swooped down on a war footing to raze structures on drains. This has raised questions over authenticity of the BBMP’s drive. Has the government misled the high court by saying they need time to prepare survey details, questioned Mr. Santosh.
After hearing the authorities of the revenue department, the high court justice Ashok B. Hinchigeri granted a deadline of six months to them to prepare the details.
Just two months ago, the revenue department and state government did not have survey details of the village identifying the drain, plain land and other physical features. A point to note is that no survey of drains took place in the last two months, so how could the department go ahead with demolition sans survey details, he asked.
It appears that either the high court direction was not considered seriously in preparing the survey records or details have been prepared hastily and demolition too has been taken up as per their whims and fancies, playing with the lives of gullible people, he added.
When contacted, BBMP commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said that whatever structures were demolished were built on SWD and the BBMP had documents to prove it. Encroachments, he said, have been cleared as per the high court directive and provisions in KMC Act.
Small fry targeted, big guns go unscathed
After the hue and cry raised by the public and members of the anticorruption forum – We the People of Bengaluru (WPB) -- against the BBMP demolition drive, the BBMP seems to have got itself more organized and announced and marked the encroachments and survey numbers. But it still hasn’t touched the big fish, that is, the malls and commercial structures built on drains. Nor do any plans show on the BBMP website either. Going after major encroachers or structures is a real challenge for the BBMP.
The maps are not fully reliable. Of course, their broad features are alright, and the principle of inter-connected lakes is established in them. But the actual paths of the kaluves between the lakes are not at all available as the maps were made individually for villages. The maps include estimated paths of water drains and not actual paths.
—Ashwin Mahesh, Urban Planner
Which is why the BBMP would prefer to target poor and small occupants as they are voiceless. The moment they touch the big ‘uns they know the latter will approach the court and expose the wrongdoings of the officers. The civic body may want to target them, but not immediately, said Ashwin Mahesh, urban planner.
“Their maps are not fully reliable. Of course, their broad features are alright, and the principle of inter-connected lakes is established in them. But the actual paths of the kaluves between the lakes are not all available as the maps were made individually for villages. The maps include estimated paths of water drains and not actual paths. This makes the demolitions easy to challenge in court”, he said.
The system of kaluves is designed to transport excess water away from the lakes out of the city. But how much is considered excess -- if the lakes were properly and regularly dredged, they would have higher holding capacity and not overflow as much. If water from the large lakes is used in local water supply schemes, the overflow could be directed to practical use instead, he added.
“The accumulated errors of the past have left us with no 'correct' options. What we can do today is simply to choose between a number of sub-optimal choices. And at least then, implement this choice properly and assiduously”, he suggested.
