Row over building for slum dwellers

Row over building for slum dwellers

The Hindu

Hanumanthnagar residents say it is coming up on an area meant for a park

# The Slum Clearance Board is constructing the building
# MLA denies residents' association's charge

Bangalore: A building being constructed on a park at Hanumanthnagar is snowballing into a controversy with residents claiming that it is illegal. The area in question is a 2.5-acre land called the Forest Park, which is located between Shaneshwara Temple and Kempambudhi Tank at Gavipuram.

The Slum Clearance Board is constructing a building at the park for slum dwellers, who are currently living on the road near it, after obtaining permission from the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, said an official of the civic body.

Members of the Bangalore Nirmapaka Kempe Gowda Kendra Samiti, who are opposed to the project, say that the slum dwellers were shifted to the park "temporarily" 16 years ago. Government records also validate their claim that the slum dwellers had to be relocated to their original place at Sanyasi Kunte, if and when the Karnataka Housing Board built dwelling units for them.

But as the soil was not strong enough at Sanyasi Kunte to hold a multi-storeyed building the project never took off, a BMP official said.

M.K. Thimmesha Prabhu, lawyer and former corporator of the area, shows a Bangalore Development Authority plan that earmarks the now disputed piece of land as "corporation park."

He said that construction of the building violated the Karnataka Parks, Play-fields and Open Spaces (Preservation and Regulation) Rules, 1985, which states "no person shall construct any building or put up any structure likely to affect the utility of the park, play-field or open space..."

Asked about Section 8 (1) of the Act which stated that the executive authority could "permit the construction of such buildings or putting up of such structures as may be necessary for the improvement or more beneficial utilisation of the park...", he said that this section did not allow for changing the land use of the area from a park to housing units.

Members of the residents' association allege that the building coming up on the park is part of "vote-bank politics."

K. Chandrashekar, MLA and former corporator, however denies this. He says that the land has not been earmarked for a park. "I have built so many parks in the area. Why would I want to encroach upon a park now?" he asks.

Anita Reddy of Awaaz, an NGO working to build the structure, says that the building is not being built on a park and that the land was just BMP area.

"The slum dwellers have been living here for the past 16 years with no basic amenities. There are 400-odd families here. When 22 acres can be cordoned off for a deer park, why can we not have about two acres for human beings?"

Mr. Thimmesha Prabhu, however, says that the residents' association is not against providing housing for slum dwellers. "We just do not want it in the park," he says.