BENGALURU: Thousands of people stood around helplessly as their dream homes were brought down by the BBMP authorities on Saturday.
Some of these houses were brand new, for which the owners had not even conducted the house-warming ceremony, and some for which home loans have not yet been paid up. The encroachment removal drive began in Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli and Yelahanka zones.
Senior citizen Pradeep Rao, a resident of Avani Sringeri near Kodichikkanahalli Lake off Bannerghatta Road, was shattered. “We were told on Friday that the house will be demolished on Friday afternoon. On Saturday at 8.30am, they started demolishing our house. We could not take our things outside. At least 70 per cent of our house is gone. I stay with my wife, son and daughter-in-law, who is expecting,” he said.
Pradeep said that they had a BDA site in Anjanapura, which they sold to construct the house in Avani Sringeri about 13 years back. “We still have to pay our house loan on this,” he said.
Srinivasa Prasad (name changed), who resides near Kasavanahalli Lake area in Mahadevapura zone said all their savings were gone in just one day. “Half our house has been demolished. Some of the expensive items are still inside our house. With no windows and doors, we cannot leave it and go,” he said.
In the same area, a newly constructed house was demolished. “The owner was waiting for the Ashada month (considered inauspicious) to end. Now that the auspicious Shravana month is here, he wanted to perform the house-warming ceremony. But his dream has been shattered,” said a neighbour.
Bommanahalli MLA Satish Reddy said “I shall check if any compensation can be given.”