Illegal houses at Puttenahalli Lake will be razed within a week: Palike

About 70 houses, which have encroached the Puttenahalli Lake at JP Nagar, will be demolished within a week. This was announced by chairman of the BBMP standing committee for horticulture K Raganna on Friday.

The chairman, during his inspection, was irked by the slow progress in the development of the lake and for not removing the encroachment which was hindering the progress.

“The houses will be removed within a week and  lake development should be taken up soon, ” he said.

The Puttenahalli Lake stretches across 13.25 acres of which about 1.21 acres has been encroached upon. The BBMP was able to clear about 4 guntas of encroachment.

“About 70 houses had llegally come up at Lakshmi Layout at Lake Place. Seven years back, the local leaders had illegally sold the place to the people taking from each of them Rs50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The families are increasing day by day,” said Puttenahalli ward corporator L Ramesh.

“BBMP commissioner also inspected the lake and served notices to the illegally occupied people. But on humanitarian grounds, the local MLA had agreed to provide them land, power and water at Bettadaspura near Electronic City. But these people are not ready to go there. We will give them time to move out of the place. If they don’t agree, we will demolish their illegal houses,” Ramesh added.
The members first visited the Uttarahalli Moge Lake near Shivaganga Layout which spreads across 15 acres 16 guntas. According to the BBMP officials, about 8 guntas had been encroached by the public. So a resurvey of the lake areas has been in progress.
The total project allotment for the lake development is Rs376.80 lakh. The work started in June 2009 and the first phase of the work like de-silting, embankment and riveting had been completed for Rs74.98 lakh. The second phase of work is in progress for Rs144.87 lakh.
BBMP officials are working on inlet water drain where the sewage water is diverted to the channel. Works on RCC culvert, downstream improvement and watchman’s shed are also in progress. The depth of the lake is 2.1 metres. Earlier, the water-storing capacity used to be 40,000 cubic metres. The capacity will be increased to 75,000 cubic metres after desilting.  Officials said a sewage treatment plant (STP) will be set up near the lake for Rs160 lakh. The tender process is under way and the plant will be set up in a few months.
While the BBMP officials are saying that the lake land has been encroached upon, N Gopi, a resident of the areas, said they do not have any proper map of the area.
“The forest department came and surveyed the lake and constructed fencing around the lake to avoid the encroachment. After that, the BBMP surveyed the area and finally the thalisdhar surveyed it. The three survey sketches look different. After the chain fencing was done by the forest department, I constructed a house on the other side of the fencing.
But the BBMP is saying that I have encroached 150 ft of their area. So I have requested the BBMP to resurvey the area which they are doing. If they find that I have encroached the area, let them demolish my house,” Gopi said.  The committee members also visited the 2.6-acre Dorai Kere at Uttarahalli. The project was estimated at Rs8 crore and it included a Rs2.10-crore STP.  The project was taken up by Sspcon System Ltd on BOT system. Of the 10 mld sewage water from the drain, 9 mld water will be left on the pipeline while 1 mld water will be treated.