Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the State Government and the BBMP to clear the encroachment of the Raj Canal immediately. The court held that the BBMP had failed to discharge its statutory duties in clearing encroachment on the Rajakaluve Canal.
The court directed the state government and the civic body to take measures to prevent discharge of waste and pollutants into the Rajakaluve and to submit a status report in this regard on or before the next date of hearing scheduled for October 12.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S Vishwajit Shetty passed the order on a plea filed by social activist Geeta Mishra, who drew the court’s attention with photographs showing the city’s flood situation.
The petitioner brought to the attention of the court that the direction given by the High Court Division Bench in its order dated June 18, 2019 has not been followed even after 18 months, and the court ordered to survey Rajakaluve and clear the encroachments. While doing so, the court gave six weeks to both the state government and the BBMP to place on record the steps taken to implement these directions. But the petitioner told the court through his lawyer GR Mohan that it was not complied with.
Encroachment of Lakes: In response to the directions issued in the order dated July 15 and 20, 2022, the designated authorities of Subrahmanyapur Lake and Begur Lake submitted compliance affidavits to the court. According to this affidavit, 81 private encroachments were found in Beguru Lake and 33 were cleared.
It has been noticed that one acre and 17 guntas of land is being used for the purpose of link road and 3 acres and 39 guntas have been encroached by the slum dwellers in relation to Subrahmanyapur lake. He pointed out that the encroachment of the slum dwellers should be done by the Slum Clearance Board. The court then directed the executive engineer of the slum board to appear before it on October 12, 2022.
The executive engineer of the BBMP Bommanahalli division, who has not taken any action to clear the encroachment or submitted a follow-up report despite the July 20, 2022 order regarding the Puttenahalli lake, has been directed to appear before the court on the next date of hearing.
