
BENGALURU: Dramatic scenes unfolded at the Kengeri office of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) on Monday evening after nearly 200 landowners from the upcoming second leg of the Bengaluru Business Corridor (previously called Peripheral Ring Road) stormed the office.
The landowners hurled abuses, laced with foul language, at the staff present. The reason: BDA had ensured the disconnection of power supply to their houses, which had been constructed illegally.
BDA on Tuesday filed a complaint at the Kengeri police station against around 200 people for obstructing their staff from discharging their duty. It plans to proceed further and file an FIR shortly, said a senior official.
Bengaluru Business Corridor-II runs for 52 km from Hosur to Tumakuru Road via Bannerghatta Road, Kanakapura Road, Mysuru Road, and Magadi Road. The land requirement would be approximately 4,000 acres.
Bengaluru Business Corridor-I is a 73.03 kilometre circular road that will be built on 2,560 acres of land. It will begin at Tumakuru Road and terminate at Hosur Road, passing via Doddaballapur Road, Ballari Road, Old Madras Road, and Whitefield Road.
According to the official, “Preliminary work in connection with both phases of the Bengaluru Business Corridor has commenced. When officials were conducting survey work, they noticed over 200 illegal constructions coming up along the route of Phase-II. These were revenue sites, and the owners had built the houses without getting a plan sanctioned from any of the 12 authorised agencies – the BDA, the Anekal authority, or gram panchayats under which they fall.”
Though BDA has not issued the preliminary notification, it would be difficult to evict people after they settle down in their illegal constructions, the official said.
“Since they were unauthorised, we made the request to BESCOM a week ago. The power supply was disconnected two days ago on Saturday (January 18).”
The house owners gheraoed the Kengeri office on January 20 evening around 4 pm, where two women staff members were also present.
“They said BDA had no business to get their power supply disconnected as the lands were not notified yet and demanded immediate restoration of electricity. Apart from obscene language, they were very aggressive and threatened our staff. Hence, we approached the police on Tuesday."