State has BTC on shaky turf

State has BTC on shaky turf
CHANDRASHEKAR G.
DC | BENGALURU


Article Rank




Did the govern ment, and not the horses, have blinkers on when it directed the Bengaluru Turf Club (BTC) to shift out of its Race Course Road premises in the heart of the city to a new track to be built on a lake bed in Chikkajala Village, in Bengaluru North Taluk, off National Highway-7? The government refused to renew the BTC’s lease on the race course and promised to allot 95.32 acres for the new course on a lake bed in Chikkajala Village, in Bengaluru North Taluk, off National Highway-7 — in violation of a high court order that no lake bed land in the Bengaluru Metropolitan Area should be used for development or construction of any kind
The government has filed an interim application before the high court asking for a modification of its order but all bets are off pending a decision from the court. To make matters worse for the BTC, residents of Chikkajala have joined issue with the government and are opposing the turf club being set up on the lake bed. “We have sub mitted a memorandum to the government on the issue,” said Muniraju M., former member of Doddajala village panchayat
“Eight villages in Chikkajala hobli are dependent on ground water from the lake bed,” said Mune Gowda, a farmer
With the state government directing the BTC to temporarily conduct races in Mysore, where facilities are wholly inadequate, the home stretch seems distant for the club.