Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike: Demolition break allows owners to acquire stay order

BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which had planned to carry out demolition to remove stormwater drain encroachments on weekends to avoid owners getting stay orders from court, was defeated in its strategy allegedly due to its slow action as owners at Gururaja Layout and Fern City obtained a court-ordered stay against demolition on their properties. 

Executive Engineer, Stormwater drain, R Malathi, said that when the Palike officials arrived at Fern City and Gururaja Layout with bulldozers at Doddanekundi at Mahadevapura Zone to clear stormwater drain encroachments on Saturday, they found that the owners were armed with a stay order, and the notices were put up on the wall.

The BBMP officials, in another case, are awaiting response form the Bengaluru East tahsildar’s office in connection with the hearing of Congress leader NA Harris-owned Nalapad Academy at Challaghatta, to resume the drive.

After the demolition drive was halted to clear demolition debris in the aftermath of the drive and also to conduct another round of survey, BBMP on Saturday removed encroachments by demolishing a compound wall on stormwater drain at Belathur area in Mahadevapura Zone.

Jagadish Reddy from Varthur Raising said that since the BBMP has been sparing influential owners they have been accused of being selective about the properties where the demolition drive will be conducted. “It appears that the officials are not just delaying the drive to help the owners get a stay order, but are also suggesting how to approach the court and obtain the order,” Reddy alleged. 

Echoing him, Ashok Mrutyunjaya, president of AAP’s Mahadevapura unit, said the BBMP officials have deliberately halted the drive to facilitate powerful owners obtain a stay order. “The drive is just an eyewash, and the bulldozers were in action only on the properties of poor  and small-time encroachers,” he said.