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@ BiM - I expect you mean TDR (transferable development rights). It's discussed at length here. It's been more or less a non-starter in Bengaluru.

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This is not too different from what is happening in Assam - where Bangladeshi migrants have similarly been exploited - as also had been happening in various pockets in Delhi and other places, including our own Shivajinagar).

Murali, I am not sure what you are alluding to when you speak about 'Shivajinagar' in this context? A bit more clarity will help.

• Whether Shivajinagar hosts a no. of illegal immigrants? Any sources?
• Whether it was based on profile of the residents living there?
• Whether more such localities in B'lore whose resident profile is similar to Shivajinagar, also hosts illegal immigrants?

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Vimal,

Thanks for sharing the info on this incident. As the saying goes, there are 2 sides to a story. Is it possible to share the reasons behind this eviction?

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Hi Syed/ All,

Below is the link to the petition created to stop the demolition. The link gives complee details of the backgrounder and what has prevailed in recent times.

http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/stop-demolitions-and-eviction-protect-the-housing-rights-of-the-residents-of-ews-quarters-koramangala

I would requet all to review in detail and take a stance. Sign it only if you are convinced. I did.

Thanks

Vimal

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While everyone feels sad about such evictions, and human sufferings thereof, the other side of the story also needs to be told if we are to find lasting solutions to these kinds of problems, which are not confined to Koramangala, Bangalore, or India even. Based on the note released by SlumJagathu, the organisation spear-heading the agitation, I have tried to bring to bear the right perspective the issues involved, para by para, as below:

In 1984 BBMP built 1512 houses in Viveknagar, Bangalore and distributed them to Economically Weaker Section families in 1996. These G+2 EWS quarters were not provided basic facilities like water or toilet. Due to rampant corruption in building the quarters, the buildings started cracking after 5 years and collapsed after 7 years of allotment. Three persons including a child died in the building collapse and several were injured.

Moral od the story: If you leave it to the PWD, or the slum development board, it is inevitable that you will only get such construction.

A committee setup by BBMP suggested that 21 of the 42 structures to be demolished and the rest repaired. But BBMP forced all people to vacate the buildings and demolished all the structures with an intention to handover the land to private companies.

I would suppose it was a matter of safety.

Meanwhile, people (both alotees and tenants) were forced to live in huts with tin sheds for many years.

BBMP had to provide shelter, and perhaps this was the best they could do it under the circumstances.

In a site where 3000 houses could be built, BBMP has signed a MoU with a private company to build 1640 houses (G+9 multi storeyed) and intend to distribute only to the original allottees. Already 22 acres of prime land has been given to the notorious Garuda Mall as a result of huge corruption from top to bottom. The company will be building the houses in 40 % land and build a commercial complex in the other 60% land.  This is  clearly an act of land grab. This is nothing but an action of plundering the land reserved for the housing of Dalits and Minorities.

This is a PPP model adopted from Mumbai (perhaps tried elsewhere before too) - it has its merits and de-merits. It's essentially a way of addressing the dire shortage of housing for the urban poor. The contract award was challenged in the court, and the court upheld the decision of the government. Now, it can be argued that the government should fund the housing of the poor on its own, in which case perhaps 3000 houses could have been built. Of course, that logic will the lead to many more such demands, whereas the government resources are already stretched to its limits.

The BBMP Officials have managed to reach a compromise with the EWS allottees and the company to completely evict the thousand and odd families living their without any form of rehabilitation, in spite of the BBMP promise of building in-situ houses for them. BBMP has also issued them the necessary identity cards and the people living there possess their voter ids and ration cards to prove their claim. The BBMP managed to suppress the vital information from the high court of Karnataka and procuring a judgement in their favour and evict the EWS residents without any rehabilitation.

When the buildings collapsed, the government made necessary arrangements for the rehabilitation of the original 1512 allotees. But, between them, the local politicians, and such other vested interests, they allowed the vacated lands to be occupied by a new set of migrants, obviously for a consideration. More importantly, the politicians got them voter ID cards, forming a captive vote bank on the promise of getting them permanent housing too. (This is not too different from what is happening in Assam - where Bangladeshi migrants have similarly been exploited - as also had been happening in various pockets in Delhi and other places, including our own Shivajinagar).

What is happening essentially is that the hapless poor are being exploited by various sets of politicians in their nefarious games. The answers have to be found elsewhere.

A mall coming up there is of equal concern to everyone in Koramangala because of the added traffic problems it is going to create to the already chaotic situation prevailing. That has been highlighted here.

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