BENGALURU : Residents of a high-end apartment complex in Bellandur complain of illegal dumping on the private land next to the Bellandur lake between 12 am and 4 am. Satish Jha, former RWA member, said, “Some people have been dumping mud to level this land so that slum dwellers can rebuilt shelters that were demolished by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) two months ago.”
Upvinder Singh, a resident of the apartment, said that it is a wetland and dumping is not allowed in the area. “There needs to be a wall separating the government and the private land. BBMP would not clear the other land saying that they cannot interfere in their business. There are rumours that the land belongs to an IAS officer in Delhi,” he said.
“I had spoken to the slum dwellers personally and found that the landowner is earning a huge profit by charging them a bomb as rent. Most of them are Bangladeshis with fake Aadhaar and voter ID cards,” said Upvinder. “The number of slum dwellers have doubled due to the illegal dumping,” said another resident.
Rahim Khan, a slum dweller and a worker in a plastic factory, said, “Many of us are now staying on this patch of land in Kariyammana Agrahara. All the land here is owned by a private zamindar (landlord).
The rooms cost a rent of `10,000 a month. Poor people like us cannot afford it. So we stay in jhopdis (huts) here, paying `1,000 to 2,000 a month. Some people who have relatives have gone to their relative’s places. But the ones without any job or people are landless and are suffering.”
He said that they have come here from other states such as Assam, UP and Tamil Nadu since there are no jobs back in their hometown. “Here at least, we get a job. We don’t have anywhere else to go. Modi and the government don’t want us to stay in jhopdis, but where else will we go?,” he asked.
Earlier, Narayanappa T, had spoken to TNIE and claimed that the private land was his. However, he now denies such claims. “I have nothing to do with the land,” he told CE. BBMP chief engineer of Mahadevapura, G Parameshwara refused to comment on the issue saying he is not aware of it. The AEE Prakash H was also unavailable for comment.