BENGALURU: Houses, apartment blocks, a private college and a government office were among the buildings demolished on Thursday in and around Sarakki lake in JP Nagar 6th phase.
The demolition drive, perhaps the biggest ever in the city, will continue for three or four days, during which the Bengaluru Urban district administration will recover 33 acres of encroached land worth about `2,000 crore. Soon after the operations began in the morning, the area looked like a war zone, with distressed people standing around the construction debris.
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Hundreds were out on the streets, some arguing with the officials and others pleading with them. Many just looked on helplessly as the JCBs brought down their houses.
Fear of Court
Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner V Shankar, supervising the operations, told reporters the drive had been pending for three months.
“We faced contempt of court proceedings for not clearing the encroachments. We had issued several notices to the house owners asking them to vacate,” he said.
Some owners had moved out in response to the notices, but others had put up boards claiming they had got court orders staying any demolition.
“Those boards were just meant to mislead us. We have conducted surveys many times, even aerial ones,” he said.
Shankar said officials were collecting details of people who had claimed ownership of the lakebed, and builders who had bought land from them. The BBMP and the BDA had built roads in the lake area, and these will also be cleared, he said.
Babus in the Dock
Shankar promised action against sub-registrars who had issued ownership documents to land-grabbers. Shankar estimates 33 acres and 15 guntas of land had been grabbed here.
“Even if we take a minimum of `10,000 per sqft, the land is worth around `2,000 crore,” he said.
Suneel Kumar, Additional Director-General of Police, Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force, said he would act once FIRs were registered against the encroachers.
It’s a Huge Lake
Sarakki lake measures 82 acres and 24 guntas, and is one of the biggest lakes in Bengaluru.
It is spread across three villages: Jaraganahalli (38 acres and 14 guntas), Puttenahalli (6 acres and 10 guntas) and Sarakki (38 acres).
Of this spread, three acres had been encroached in Puttenahalli, 13 in Sarakki and three in Jaraganahalli.
Roads have come up on a little over four acres.
Temples Spared
As many as 15 temples had come up on the encroached land. They were dedicated to Ganapati, Shiva, Shirdi Sai Baba, Muneshwara, Chowdeshwari, Yellamma, Dharamaraya, Aiyappa, Mahalakshmi, Angala Parameshwari and other deities.
Deputy Commissioner Shankar said the temples would not be demolished as that might hurt people’s sentiments. “We will hand them over to the Muzrai Department,” he said.
Many land-grabbers had put up temples next to their buildings thinking that would deter the demolishers.
