BENGALURU: Who has been dumping mud on Varthur lake bed towards Thubarahalli? This mystery was solved on Wednesday with the appearance of the owner of the property, Shivraj Kumar K.
He came to the spot and said, “About 95 per cent of the area where mud was dumped is my property.”
The revenue officials, who were conducting a survey of the land, too confirmed that he owned the land and it was his ancestral property. Revenue Inspector Prasad said, “Only a little portion was encroached upon, the rest is buffer zone. The tahsildaar will take a decision on whether any action will be taken against the owner. Currently we are carrying out a survey to put up a fence along the lake’s boundary. The mud won’t be removed from here as it’s private land.”
Both Shivraj and the revenue officials maintained that dumping mud was not illegal in the lake’s buffer zone but construction activity cannot be taken up there.BDA Assistant Executive Mallikarjuna said, “There is a certain portion of the lake land that has been encroached upon and the rest seems to be Shivraj’s property. We had already lodged a complaint with the police. Now we will recover a fine for the extent of encroachment done by him.”
Shivraj is yet to be informed about the penalty to be levied. Shivraj said he had covered the land with layers of mud as nearby apartments were letting in sewage and dumping garbage.
Denying Shivraj’s allegations, Jagadish Reddy, a resident of a nearby apartment, said, “If sewage was being let into his property, then he should have complained about it to the BWSSB. Dumping truckloads of mud is not the solution. Someone might own a property near a lake but the National Green Tribunal clearly says 75 metres of buffer zone has to be maintained from the lake. And no construction activity can take place there.”