Cornered BDA seeks a new site for playground

Cornered BDA seeks a new site for playground



R Krishnakumar | TNN



Bangalore: After facing flak over sanctioning a judges’ colony on a location marked as playground, the state administration has shifted to damage-control mode.
The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has asked residents of HSR Layout II Sector to identify alternative sites to develop the playground. But the core discrepancy — of the state itself violating the BDA’s Comprehensive Development Plan 2015 — remains uncorrected.
It was in October 2007 that former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy inaugurated work on the judges’ residential colony (site No 64 of Haralakunte village, adjacent to the water tank on 19th Main, 19th Cross, Sector II). This, when the residents’ association was pushing for development of the nine-acre ground as a miniforest and sports complex. Brig R S Murthy, president of the HSR Sector II residents’ association, says residents of 20th and 22nd Main had, in 2006, levelled the vacant land and helped in converting it into a playground.
For the past 10 years, the playground is being used by students of Cambridge public school as well as other schools. After residents pursued the case with the governor’s executive committee, adviser S Krishna Kumar directed the BDA commissioner to discuss the issue with residents. “The commissioner and other senior officers met us last month and requested us to identify alternative land for allotment of the sports complex. We appreciate the offer but it remains a fact that the government has violated norms by allotting land meant for a sports complex to a residential colony,’’ says Brig Murthy.
While some BDA officials remained tight-lipped about the development, a senior official confirmed that residents were given the option to suggest an alternative site. They were asked to explore options of finding another site where a park and playground could be developed, the official said.
“A couple of locations, including a seven-acre land in sector II, have been identified; there are litigation issues with these sites that need to be solved. But we are still trying to convince the government that since the ground is already in place, a better option will be to allot the playground here itself, in accordance with the CDP norms,’’ says A Channakeshava, secretary of the residents’ association. According to sources, however, that looks unlikely because the government order on the judges’ colony is already out.
Residents contend that the area is becoming increasingly short on lung space and taking over existing open spaces for residential development will further aggravate the situation.