MANGALURU: An elderly couple was left shocked when the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) demolished the compound wall of their house for the purpose of widening a road without following the procedure of issuing a prior notice to them.
The pleas of Ananth Pai (86) and Lakshmidevi Pai, who live in a house at Bhojarao Lane in Dongarakeri, went left unheard when MCC Junior Engineer Nithyananda K S came with a backhoe and bulldozed the compound wall on October 29, the couple’s son, Narayan Pai, said. Even the water connection was cut, but it was restored after some time, Pai said.
According to procedures, the corporation should have first issued the notice and then initiated action based on the response. But in this case, the MCC issued the notice only on October 31, two days after the demolition was carried out, and only after the owners approached the authorities and threatened to lodge a trespassing complaint against the junior engineer.
Pai said that the MCC cannot demolish the compound as the property is under litigation. “Despite being fully aware of this, they have demolished the compound without issuing the notice. There is a larger conspiracy behind this. The other party in the litigation is planning to sell the property to a builder. Since they can’t legally do so, they are using such tricks in order to make us agree to their terms.”
He believes that the action was taken due to ulterior motives and not just for road widening. The presence in the issue of a local builder who is notorious for targeting under-litigation properties, and because the junior engineer told his parents that they would be benefited if they part with the property prove that road widening is just a pretext, Pai said.
He added that after local corporator Rajendra was told on October 30 that the property is under litigation, he promised to rebuild the compound wall. But nobody had turned up until November 1, Pai said, pointing at the demolished structure.
Junior Engineer Nithyananda K S denied that he was under anybody’s influence when he razed the compound wall, and maintained that he carried out the demolition only after the house owners gave their oral consent.