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The Koramangala 'lake' saga
Written By murali772 - 5 November, 2009
Bangalore governance Corruption Koramangala Analysis
There is the huge tract of land of 37 acres on the left when you come down BDA complex in Koramangala, while heading towards Wipro park. Just last week the Chief Minister has denotified the entire land in favour of the erstwhile land lord, inspite of orders at the Supreme Court level against any such act. Alongwith the landsharks, the CM seems to have no qualms whatsoever about putting at peril the interests of the citizens.
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The following is the mail a prominent member of the Koramangala community sent on the subject on the community Yahoogroup (based on a note - appended further below - sent to a select few by a retired bureucrat and resident of Koramangala, who once held the position of Chairman of BDA):
Some of you might know of the continuing saga of the "lake" area in 3rd block (this is on the left as you come down from BDA complex - where there is a nursery of sorts). This case has been going on for over 5/6 years, up to Supreme court and back. Koramangla Initiative (through an advocate) has been funding a PIL, which we thought till now was going in the right direction. Our prayer, simple enough, was to keep it as open space/ park etc.
While the legal issue in this case is too long to elucidate in this mail, this is just a heads up, on the latest develeopment.
The government (not BDA) in at all its wisdom, has chosen to de-notify this area and give it back to original owner. This happened a few days ago. We know of 6.21 acres de-notified, but we believe that the total extent might run up to 32 odd acres.
This after the Supreme court and High court had already declared that this property belongs to the BDA (which means the citizens), and also an interim order from the High court, which states that this property is not to be alloted to anyone!
We are taking a review of startegy and will soon contest this de-notification order, but the script is getting increasingly complex. We will need, as it unfolds further, at least 2 initiatives, from the citizens of Koramangala:
a) A show of strength, in signatures, physical presences, to highlight this absolutley questionable action by the government.
b) Resources, to up the ante in the legal battle, possibly to bring in a team of senior advocates to assist our lawyer, and perhaps a Supreme court representation.
As said above, this is a quick heads up, and I will post the developments in next few days. I do hope Koramangalaites will support in strength.
The mail from the retired bureaucrat:
“I thought I should keep you in the loop about an earth shattering 'neighbourhood" development. There is the huge tract of land of 37 acres on the left when you come down BDA complex in Koramangala, while heading towards Wipro park. Against all odds we fought the erstwhile landlord in the High Court and twice in the Supreme Court during 200-04. The High Court Single Judge, Divison Bench and finally the Supreme Court all ruled in favour of the BDA and upheld the land acquisition. The Supreme Court judgement was delivered just as I was leaving for Mumbai. You will remember that I had wanted to convert the whole place into a park. Well it looks like that's as far as we got. Just last week the Chief Minister has denotified the entire land in favour of the erstwhile land lord. The Supreme has held that once land has been acquired for a public purpose it must be used solely for that public purpose. In case the original public purpose no longer exists it should be used for some other public purpose. In case no public purpose exists then the land should be auctioned and under no circumstances should it be returned to the original landlord. A brazen and patently illegal denotification. Nevertheless, I am trying to mobilise some well meaning people to directly approach the Supreme Court. This requires a lot of time, effort and patience as public outrage subsides as fast as it surfaces”
The response from the members of the community has been just overwhelming. The question simply is could such a thing have happened without the direct complicity of the CM himself? Alongwith the land-sharks, he seems to have no qualms whatsoever about putting at peril the interests of the citizens.
And, this is not an isolated case - we are before our very eyes seeing the disappearnce of even the few remaining lake-beds one by one on a daily basis - check this. How do we, the citizens, tell him where he gets off?
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
murali772 - 10 July, 2013 - 08:01
At long last, the Bhoomi Pooja for the restoration work will be performed by Sri Ramalinga Reddy, local MLA and honorable Transport Minister, GoK, at 9.30 AM on Friday, the July, 12th.
Incidentally, a document listing out the recommendations, prepared by Sri S Subramanya, a noted naturalist, who was a key participant in the technical team brought together by the local residents, is accessible here. And, accessible here is a short film on the effort by members of Koramangala Initiative.
Hopefully, within another 6 months, we should have a beautiful kere in the midst of Koramangala - largely a result of persistant citizen effort.
n - 19 July, 2013 - 15:43
Hats off to people for having lots of patience (close to 5 years to sort out). Why politicians continue to give importance to short-term gains like getting some crores kickback and ego than earning long-term goodwill of people, getting elected repeatedly and "earning" continuous smaller kickbacks, is hard to understand. The latter case is a win-win and benefits eveybody.
Bheema.Upadhyaya - 20 July, 2013 - 04:20
Wonderful news ! Everytime I was passing through, I was speculating about the fate of the land. Good ! Though I am note resident of Koramangala, a learned a lot of things from activities of RWAs there..
murali772 - 3 August, 2012 - 07:26
The recent policy adopted by the BBMP for rejuvenation of lakes and tanks in the city is completely skewed and ineffective as most of the water bodies that have been taken up for restoration have neither regained their pristine glory nor retained the flora and fauna. In fact, the 15 to 20 so-called restored lakes are completely dry and fallow today and have lost all the fish and the catcalls of the migratory birds from across the state.
For the full report in CBN-live, click here.
Quite typical of BDA's "soup-bowl" design approach adopted so far, which is why the expert team put together by us said no to it, and came up with its own "concept plan". Though it has meant some time lost, hopefully, we should have a more natural environment here, which besides requires the minimum maintenance.
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