It was just another day for Lingamma and her family, as they were preparing their lunch. Hearing a loud commotion at 1.45 pm on 13 September, the family stepped out of their house to see several police officers along with officials from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), media personnel and an excavator arriving in front of their home. Within minutes, the excavator began demolishing the compound wall of an apartment, located at Papa Reddy Layout in Munnekolala, in front of Lingamma’s shanty home. The BBMP officials then arrived at Lingamma’s home and asked them to vacate their home as their home was to be demolished next. The family had been living there for 10 years. Their oral eviction notice came five minutes before the excavator started pulling down the house. The family watched their house being demolished in front of their eyes as a frenzied media captured it all.
“We have been living here for 10 years and not once was there an issue raised, saying we encroached or built our home on storm water drains. Suddenly, they tell us we have encroached and tell us to vacate in five minutes. We have vacated and our house was razed down, but we don’t know where to go from here or what to do,” said Lingamma who works as a daily wage labourer for a private company.
Demolition drives in Bengaluru began soon after the flood waters receded. The BBMP continued to demolish illegal structures at several locations in Bengaluru’s Mahadevapura zone on September 13. Excavators were brought to demolish illegal constructions built on rajakaluves (storm water drains) and are part of the measures taken by the state government to remove encroachments that led to the recent flooding in parts of the city after days of heavy rain beginning September.
While owners of shanty houses were notified five minutes in advance, residents living in apartments say they were not informed at all about their compounds being demolished. They found out only when they heard loud noises and came down to check what was happening. “I was sleeping when this happened and I had no idea. I suddenly woke up to hear loud noises and came down to check what was happening. That’s when we found that parts of the compound wall were being demolished,” said Praveen, who lived in the apartment complex in front of Lingamma’s home.
Several other apartment complexes were partially razed soon after, including two more shanty houses located in a slum dwelling. The tenants of these shanty homes, Tulsi and Ambareesh also said that they had not received any prior notice before they lost their homes.
While BBMP says the encroachments are illegally built on rajakaluves, home and land owners have said that they had all the necessary documents to refute BBMP’s claims. “Surveys on this land were conducted thrice by the government and it was only after their clearance that roads were constructed and the land was sold to builders. We did not construct anything before these surveys were conducted and I have all the records for this,” said Mahendra Reddy who is a land owner in Munnekolala.
BBMP chief engineer Basavaraj stated that a stretch of about 20 buildings extending from Munnekolala to Spice Garden have been marked for demolition. “According to protocols, the demolition of smaller structures can be carried out without issuing notices,” he said in response to houses being demolished without notice.