Date:14/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/14/stories/2006121421240400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Slum dwellers demand possession certificates

Staff Reporter

RAISING SLOGANS: Members of Samata Sainik Dal staging a protest seeking possession certificates in front of the BDA office in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Bangalore: Residents of the Nagashettihalli Slum in Sanjaynagar ward on Tuesday staged a protest in front of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) demanding possession certificates be given to them by the authority.

Samata Sainik Dal president M. Venkatswami said that the slum dwellers, mostly Dalits, had been living at the slum for 40 years. The land was given to them by the then Deputy Commissioner at the instruction of the late B. Basavalingappa, the then Yelahanka MLA.

In 1988, the Government gave the land to Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), which was then sold to N.T.I. Society. This company then sold the land to L.T.I. trust, although the slum dwellers had built houses on the 5.27-acre plot. "This company now wants to shift us to another land at Yelahanka, where they have built us very small houses," said Mr. Venkatswami. BDA Commissioner Shankarlinge Gowda said representatives of the samiti had presented their demands to him. "It will be placed before the board and then a decision will be taken," he said.