BENGALURU: The BBMP interim report on the demolition of shanties in Kariyammana Agrahara on Sunday raises more questions than it answers. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) joint commissioner (Mahadevapura) Venkatachalapathi submitted an interim report to corporation commissioner B H Anil Kumar on Wednesday.
Narayan Swamy, assistant executive engineer on deputation to the BBMP, had written to the police demanding security for a planned demolition drive, but the letter, which is attached to the report, does not mention a date for the demolition, the report says. Swamy also provided details of the notice he served to the land owner of the plot in 2018 to remove the shanties as the area had become like a slum and posed health hazards. But after that no notice was served.
He also claimed that he was not present at the site, but the report notes that some people had seen Swamy and that the police had first come in uniform and later in plainclothes. BBMP Commissioner Kumar told TNIE that the joint commissioner has sought three days time to submit his final report.
BBMP officials are have no clear answer as to whether their official was present or not during the demolition, on whose instructions the police acted, who brought the machinery to demolish the shanties, and whether or not realtors or mafia are involved. “On humanitarian grounds the BBMP can rehabilitate the people whose homes were demolished at Mahadevapura, Bellandur, Kundanahalli and surrounding areas on the orders of the assistant executive engineer. Since it was a mistake by an official deputed to BBMP from PWD, it can be done on humanitarian grounds on the orders of the state government, but provided they are legitimate natives of India. If they are illegal immigrants then they will have to be dealt with differently as per government orders,”a senior BBMP official seeking anonymity said.
Police have not yet verified the documents of the shanties’ residents. BBMP officials said one has approached them yet for rehabilitation.
Petitioner claims
The petitioner’s advocate, Clifton D’Rozario, submitted that the residents’ fundamental were under threat. The police’s actions in evicting the shanties’ residents and the claim that they were from Bangladesh was illegal and arbitrary, he argued. Around 5,000 residents of the area are economically backward and earn meagre wages through employment as security guards and drivers among others. The residents are migrants from North Karnataka, West Bengal and Assam, and are being victimised on the basis of their vulnerable socio-economic status, D’ Rozario told the court.