BENGALURU: Days after a building being built inside a BBMP lake caught the attention of citizens and activists, a huge pit for a septic tank was dug on the footpath of Vajarahalli 80 Feet Road. Officials from BDA and BBMP pressed upon Talaghatapura police to act upon the gross violation after a video went viral.
On Saturday, Hoysala police patrolling vehicles and traffic police arrived at the spot and stopped the work. Site engineer Sudhir Bhat and mason Keerthi Raj were detained. A case under IPC Section 283 (causing traffic obstruction) was also registered.
“Based on the video on Twitter about footpath encroachment, senior officials from BDA alerted the station. We brought two people to the station and directed the workers to close the pit,” said Venkatesh Naik, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Talaghattapura Traffic Police Station.
Another police official said Revanna Gowda, who is the owner of the building that is being built as a commercial complex, has been summoned to the police station. Gowda told the police that he was out of town and would visit the police station soon.
Sudhir Bhat said he was not aware of the procedure of taking permission from officials for such a project.”The area has no sanitary connection and most houses and complexes let their sewage into septic tanks and we too were making one.
Revanna Gowda was also aware of it,” he said. Abdul Aleem from Change Makers of Kanakapura Road, who arrived at the spot, said, “We used social media and called the officials to put pressure to stop this nonsense. The IPC Sections applied are too weak. We have asked BDA to file a complaint.”