The Hindu 23.11.2009
Demolitions will continue, says BBMP Commissioner
Staff Reporter
| ‘Illegal structures being pulled down after serving notices’ |
‘Encroachments on storm-water drains causing inconvenience to people’
‘Plans approved based on documents provided by owners’
CONFIDENT: BBMP Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena during his inspection of an area where the demolition drive is under way in Bangalore on Sunday.
Bangalore: Amid resistance from owners of properties that have allegedly come up on storm-water drains, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena said the demolition drive will continue till the last illegal encroachment is removed.
Speaking to reporters here on Sunday after an inspection of areas where the demolition drive is under way, Mr. Meena said illegal structures were being pulled down only after serving notices on their owners.
Referring to the complaints of absence of transparency in the demolition drive, the BBMP Commissioner said he had asked the officials to exercise “due diligence” while clearing encroachments.
Earlier, the residents of apartment buildings in Gottigere, portions of which had been demolished, complained to the BBMP Commissioner that there was ambiguity over what portion of the apartment was built illegally while pointing out that the BBMP had not properly marked the area meant for demolition.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Meena said the encroachments on storm-water drains are causing inconvenience to people. “There is no question of abandoning the demolition drive,” he said.
When his attention was drawn to the contention by certain owners that the erstwhile City Municipal Councils (CMC) had approved their building plans, Mr. Meena said that the CMCs would have approved the plan based on the documents provided by the owners. “If they are now found encroaching upon the storm-water drains by the BBMP, they will have to be removed,” he said.
Properties identified by the BBMP for demolition include apartments as well as houses in Gottigere, Ittamadu and Yelahanka, whose building plans had been approved by the erstwhile civic bodies.
Out of the 900 instances of illegal encroachment identified by the BBMP along the storm-water drains in the city, the BBMP had cleared nearly 500 instances of encroachment. A portion of two five-storeyed apartments built on storm-water drains in Gottigere had been demolished. Regarding the status of Terrace Garden Apartment, which had a portion of the building on the storm-water drain at Ittamadu, the officials said that a court has stayed demolition for two weeks and action would be initiated after the stay order is vacated.
