Date:05/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/05/stories/2007050521300500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Demolition raises people's hackles

Staff Reporter

60 houses were razed to the ground by the KHB on Monday

Residents were told about the eviction: KHB

Demolition termed a violation of human rights

DREAMS DASHED: A mother feeds her child at the place which was once their home at Allalsandra in Bangalore. — .Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: M.M. Bopanna's house was demolished on Monday. He had been paying his taxes for years, but he was not even allowed the courtesy of retrieving his items.

M.S. Babu, a retired policeman, lost some Rs. 40,000 worth of gold jewellery that he wanted to gift his newlywed daughter. He was also not given any time to salvage the household items he had bought from his hard earned money.

The demolition of 60 houses by the Karnataka Housing Board on Monday was arbitrary and high handed, a large crowd of agitated people told S.K. Vivekanand, president of the Karnataka State Human Rights Council (KSHRC), when he visited the area on Friday. The land acquired is just off NH-7 and is at Allalasandra in Yelahanka.

When The Hindu contacted KHB Commissioner M. Lakshminarayana about allegations that the residents had not been served any notice, he said that they had been "informed that their houses would be demolished and they would be evicted." To a question on whether they had been served a legal notice, as required under the law, Mr. Lakshminarayana said, "I do not know about that. I have to ask the officer concerned."

Many people whose houses were demolished questioned why they had to lose their land when their properties had been legally recognised by the Yelahanka City Municipal Council which had provided them water and power connections, roads and even collected registration fee and property tax.

"How are we supposed to know that this was encroached land? The KHB never put up any board saying that. They should have told us at the time of registration that this land belongs to them. We are not fools to take loans and construct houses on such lands," says Susheelamma, who has been living in the area for 20 years.

Shaheena, who sat amidst the rubble of her nearly 15-year-old house, asked, "The Chief Minister has announced so many times that the cases of those living on encroached land would be treated in a humane manner. What happened to that promise? Why were our houses demolished without giving us a chance to pay regularisation fee or even a notice?"

Terming the demolition a case of "gross human rights violation," Mr. Vivekanand of KSHRC said that it would be referred to the National Human Rights Commission and that the Government must construct houses for all the families that lost their houses.