
BENGALURU: Unlike the usual belligerence of illegal encroachers, there was tears and stunned disbelief by hundreds of people when the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) went ahead with its recent three-day demolition drive to acquire its property in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout.
Those squatting on the properties were duped by the original owner of the land, who convinced them that they were there legally and no harm would come to their establishments, revealed multiple BDA officials who were present during the demolition.
In the three-day drive, from January 16 to 18, BDA demolished 50 granite factories, 200 sheds including ‘labour sheds’, bakeries and various shops dotting the 1-km stretch on the Main Arterial Road (MAR) in Machohalli area of the layout. These encroachments go back eight to 10 years. Costly equipment to cut granite slabs and granite sheets were among the items demolished.
Though the factory and shop owners were given a seven-day notice prior to the demolition after the high court gave the BDA the nod to go ahead with land acquisition, the occupants and their owners continued business as usual, believing they would not be removed.
A senior BDA official part of many such drives, told TNIE, “It was a terrible human tragedy unfolding during the last three days with many factory owners in tears watching their investment in the building and equipment crushed with bulldozers.
They were completely misled by Puttaraju, owner of an entire stretch extending to 16 acres on which these constructions had come up. The final notification to acquire the land was issued by BDA in 2015. The landlord later approached the court and got a stay.” However, he had been renting out parcels of land on the property to individuals and charging them commercial rent.
Another official said, “He was earning a monthly rent of more than Rs 1.5 crore from establishments here for nearly ten years. Some bigger granite factories had up to 50 people with accommodation facilities too (labour sheds). Shop owners had invested lakhs in their businesses believing that he is the indisputable owner of the land and they could run their businesses safely.
He had even signed rental agreements with them and taken huge advance,” he explained. BDA had sent many reminders to the owners of these factories and other smaller shops to vacate MAR Road, saying it was illegal to stay there. “Puttaraju managed to regularly convince everyone that nobody would touch them and the court was on his side too,” he added.
Meanwhile Puttaraju told TNIE, “I was not aware of the recent notice issued by the BDA. No one told me about it. At the time of renting out my property itself, I told every owner that it was a property marked for acquisition and was in dispute. I made it clear that they were taking a risk by renting it out.” BDA has presently completed 8 km out of the 10.3-km MAR Road which connects Mysuru Road and Magadi Road via the centre of the layout.
The second `Flat Mela’ organised by the BDA near its Kanminike housing project on Saturday received a good response from the public with 175 flats booked on the spot. An official release said, “More than 500 people visited the mela and they totally bought 175 flats. Of them, 75 people paid the initial deposit (12.5%) for their flat on the spot.