Bangalore: Residents look at legal battle

Residents of Sobha Garnet were left crestfallen following the revenue department’s demolition drive. Feeling cheated, they plan to take the department to the court.

Ashok Ramaswamy, president, Sobha Garnet Residents’ Welfare Association, said the revenue authorities had not informed them about their plan to demolish the compound. He said the residents were peeved over this and would take legal recourse against the builder and the government.

Another resident, Usha Radhakrishna, insisted that everything about their building was legal. Why else, she asked, nobody in the government had a problem when she sold her old flat in the building and bought a new one there. Another resident, Ritu Singh, wondered if the lake—whose land the building is said to have encroached—would be extended to their doorstep. She asked what would happen to the road in front of the building if that land belongs to the lake.

Sateesh G, who has been living at Sobha Garnet for 12 years, said he had been paying property tax in advance all this while. He said the BDA had issued them an occupancy certificate too. He said they tried to explain this to revenue officials, but the police did not let the residents talk.

Hockey player Ashish Ballal said Sobha Developers had told the residents that they were in touch with the revenue department, but still the demolition took place. He said the revenue department must have given a prior notice to the builder, but the residents were not informed about it. He said the government officers merely pasted a notice on the compound wall before starting the demolition.

SS Sainarayanan, a senior citizen, described the demolition of the compound as the saddest moment in his life. He said his son, who stays in the US, had bought him the flat here. He said he had never expected that what transpired on Tuesday could happen to him.

Gitika More, who owns a departmental store in the building, said she incurred a loss of `2 lakh owing to the demolition of a portion of the departmental store. She said the residents were informed about the demolition only on Monday evening. She rued that she would now need to pump in a lot of money to reopen the store.

Jacob George, whose compound wall was also demolished, said he had bought the land in question 24 years ago. He said he had been paying property tax all along. He asked why the authorities collected property tax if the land belonged to Iblur lake.

Meanwhile, tahsildar (Bangalore South) BV Dayanand said the residents were served a notice regarding the issue in November 2013. He said those whose property had encroached the lake area had approached the high court, which had dismissed their appeal. He said the people had then, as per the HC’s directive, appealed to the assistant commissioner, who too had rejected their plea.

The tahsildar lamented that no encroacher in the country admits to grabbing land.