Bangaloreans play watchdog as govt fails to check land grabbing

BENGALURU: Sometime last month, trucks carrying sand, gravel and cement quietly drove into the Sadaramangala lake near Hoodi and labourers started construction activity. When outraged residents sought answers, they found that a tank was being constructed for a weekend Chhath Puja celebration.
The encroachers flaunted a letter they had written to the local MLA, seeking permission for the Puja on the lakebed. “Instead of cleaning up the lake, they were investing in further damaging it,” is how Hari Gowda, a member of Whitefield Rising, put it.

Virendra Mishra, a resident of the area and part of the lake protection group, said there were no permissions whatsoever for the construction.

“They had just written to the MLA asking for permission. But the MLA is not the deciding authority,” he pointed out.

Of Bengaluru's 209 lakes, some are maintained by the BBMP, some by the BDA, others by the forest department or the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority (KLCDA).

Any activity, let alone encroachment, in the buffer zone or lakebed, requires clearance not only from the agency maintaining the lake but also the watchdog, the KLCDA. The multiplicity of bodies guarding lakes may have only complicated things and led to a greater disregard. Little wonder then that the encroachers approached an elected representative. Their justification: the structure is temporary.

The concrete tank, however, was nothing like a temporary structure. After a hue and cry by citizen activists and the intervention of the KLCDA CEO, who held that the structure was illegal, it was promised that it would be removed after the occasion.

Sadaramangala is not the only lake openly encroached upon without regard for permissions and procedures. According to V Ram Prasad, cofounder, Friends of lakes, such instances are become frequent.

Prasad recollected two instances: the Vasanthapura lake, where the corporator got the BBMP to build a road through the lake; and Doddabommasandra, where the corporator, with the support of the MLA, started building a park, gym and a playground on a part of the lakebed.

Speaking about Doddabomma sandra, Prasad said, “Totally 19.3 acres of area was being encroached upon and there was not even a DPR (detailed project report).”

In response to an RTI asking for the approved DPR and finances for the project, Prasad got a verbal response from the authorities that the documents were missing.

In all the cases, the projects were undone after the KLCDA declared them illegal. When exposed, the corporators and MLAs claim ignorance about the procedures. “How can those in power be unaware of procedures?” wondered Prasad, adding, “These seem to be acts of arrogance, displaying a blatant disregard for law.”

While a large portion of the work in Doddabommasandra is yet to be reversed, it is hard to say if the tank in Sadaramangala will be removed without further pressure from the citizens.

But Prasad is optimistic. He is hopeful that the KLCDA will never be party to the encroaching of lakebeds. Terming the above cases `stories of hope', he said, “This should be an inspiration for other citizens... to know that when they put their foot down when they are lawfully correct, they will succeed.”