Days after house-warming ceremony, home turns to rubble

Shilpa Pawar’s future looked bleak. The 30-year-old pregnant woman stood staring with teary eyes as her house was razed. She was not sure if she and her aged in-laws would even have a roof over their heads for the night.

For 10 years, the Pawar family, hailing from a middle-class background in Avani Sringeri Nagar near Arakere off Bannerghatta Road, have been paying a housing loan of Rs 5,000 every month.  “We have all the documents issued by different government agencies such as A Khata, building sketch and betterment certificate and tax receipts besides electricity and water connections. Why are we targeted instead of guilty government employees and private developers?” her husband Dilip Pawar asks.

Pawar, who lives with his aged parents, said BBMP officials demolished more than what was specified in the survey plan. “Those who were living upstairs on lease are demanding their deposit amount and we have no place to spend the night. All our belongings have been damaged and we have no place to keep them. We will have to spend our entire life in debt henceforth,” Dilip, who works as a medicine distributor said.

His neighbour, who celebrated his house-warming ceremony recently, is shattered, seeing piles of debris right in front of her. "My father is a bank employee. He checked the land documents thoroughly before buying it. We all planned the design of our house right at this place, which is now full of debris. It was a house constructed by my father with a lot of love," says Priyanka Prakash.

"The rajakaluve line is at the other side. But BBMP had diverted the drain due to the presence of posh apartments there. All the middle-class and poor families living on this stretch have no influence or money,” she pointed out.

Local corporator Bhagyalakshmi Murali said property owners are at the receiving end while those who developed these sites were still at large. “L K Sathyanarayana and Samiulla sold these sites despite knowing it is government land. The government should first book them,” she said and added that she would compensate the family of Shilpa Pawar, who lost her house entirely.

During the demolition in Arakere, residents complained that excavators razed more than what was specified. Later, three property owners promised to demolish a portion of their houses with the help of private engineers in a day while BBMP demolished six houses.

In Mahadevapura, around three to four compounds along with two to three buildings were partially demolished, said Muniveerappa M, BBMP Joint Commissioner, Mahadevapura zone.  "About 7,500 sq ft of SWD along a distance of 1,100 metres has been encroached from Kasavanahalli Lake to Kaikondrahalli Lake. Houses, vacant sites, compounds have come up and we will clear all of them in the coming days after marking the encroachment points," Muniveerappa said.

BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad tried to convince the affected residents. "If these houses, constructed illegally on government sites are not demolished, houses in low-lying areas will be submerged. The drive is inevitable," he said.