BENGALURU: Accusing the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) of adopting pick and choose method in clearing encroachment of Storm Water Drains (SWD), Samparpana, a cultural and social organisation, moved the High Court by filing impleading application to assist the court which is hearing the public interest litigation filed by Citizen Action Forum.
On hearing the PIL, a division bench of acting Chief Justice H G Ramesh and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar asked the BBMP to submit the report on status of SWDs across the city by December 14.
Samarpana said that due to heavy rains on July 29 last year, the Commissioner of BBMP started demolishing the unauthroised constructions over the SWDs on August 7, 2016.
However, the BBMP has been accused of taking on encroachments on the small properties, but no concrete action has been taken against the big apartments, malls, multiplexes etc., who have encroached the SWDs in spite of the high court orders.
Advocate G R Mohan, Counsel of Samarpana, stated in the application that since BBMP has not cleared the encroachments on SWDs and no accountability of utilisation funds to the tune of `7,300 crores has been taken under the head ‘Urban Development Planning’.
“Every time it rains, the city gets submerged in water and people have to wait till the relief comes from civic agencies. There is no coordination between the civic agencies like BBMP, BESCOM and BWSSB. BBMP hasn’t addressed problems faced by the citizens during heavy rainfall,” the counsel said.