Residents unhappy with sealing drive

Residents unhappy with sealing drive

The Hindu

Some allege that it has been discriminatory

Bangalore: Residents were angry against the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BMP) sealing drive in Sadashivanagar on Thursday.

Narayan Shetty has been running Nataraj Stores for the past 25 years. "There are no shops for at least one-and-a-half km in the area. What will people do if they need something immediately?" he asked.

Narayana of Sadashivanagar sought to know what were the officials of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) doing for so long? The officials stated that it was a violation of the Comprehensive Development Plan of 1995. But these buildings existed even before the CDP came into being, he said.

Executive Engineer of the BMP Nanjundaiah told The Hindu that five provision stores, two pharmacies, and two laundry shops were sealed during the three-day drive. On Thursday, the BMP sealed six commercial establishments, including an ATM centre and a building housing the offices of the Central Bank.

Most people claimed that they were not aware that running shops in residential areas was illegal. Sujith Kumar has rented out a part of his house to a commercial enterprise. The BMP officials had assessed his property as commercial and collected taxes. When they came to seal the property, he showed them the tax receipts also. They stated that the revenue officials had collected the taxes. They were from the engineering section and according to them it was illegal, he said.

Doctor Dinesh, whose clinic was sealed on Friday, claimed that he did not receive the final notice from the BMP. "They just came unannounced and sealed my clinic," he said. C.A. Shetty, professor, said that he did not receive any final communication from the BMP before sealing the enterprise run from his house.

Residents claimed that the Sadashivanagar Residents' Welfare Organisation, which had filed public interest litigation in the High Court, was not representing all residents of the locality. "It has not contacted us before filing the public interest litigation. If they had a problem, we could have settled it amicably, " a resident said.

Some residents said the drive had been discriminatory. "There are a couple of educational institutions in the area. They cause traffic jam, attract vendors and are a nuisance in the area. But the BMP has sealed a playschool in the area, leaving many children in the lurch in the middle of the year," says Beju.

"We do not want liquor shops or restaurants. But we want shops that cater to our basic needs," says Rajashekhar of Sadashivanagar.