Joining BJP saves his encroachment

Joining BJP saves his encroachment
A Congressman prevents demolition of six houses he built on a storm water drain by joining the BJP. Now, Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali seems to have taken it upon himself to safeguard these illegal structures
M K ASHOKA


All you encroaching government land in Bangalore city, looks like Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali wants to educate you on how to save their illegal building. His lesson is simple: Join his party, the BJP, and save your encroachment.
Last year, a Congressman named C Nagaraj joined the BJP with his supporters in Limbavali’s presence and saved as many as six buildings he built by encroaching a storm water drain in Channasandra, Whitefield. This area comes under Limbavali’s assembly constituency Mahadevapur.
These houses are on a storm water drain which passes through survey numbers 124, 128, 129, 130, 131 and 132. These survey numbers are government property. Nagaraju not only built these houses, he has also sold them.
Local BJP politician Narayan Reddy alleges, “The huge storm water drain (about 50 feet wide) was filled with sand at night and buildings were constructed in a short span. Due to encroachment by Nagaraju, drain water is changing course and flowing into houses. When I obtained orders to demolish these structures Nagaraju joined our party.”
PERFECT TIMING
In fact, BBMP Joint Commissioner (Mahadevpur Sub-Division) Heera Nayak inspected the encroached buildings for demolition on October 24, last year. Portions of these structures were marked and notices were pasted. That very same day, Nagaraju joined BJP in the presence of Minister Limbavali and ensured his buildings were not razed.
Reddy says, “Since then, BBMP officials are giving one or the other excuse and not going ahead with demolition. Their latest excuse is that there are many encroachments on the storm water drain and public are opposing any attempt to tear down the illegal structures. Actually, Nagaraju is the only encroacher on the storm water drain.”
PACIFYING POLITICS
When Reddy refused to stay quiet, Limbavali reportedly came to his house and asked him not to make an issue as Nagaraju had now become a party worker. Reddy says, “I told him clearly that since encroachment causes flooding in whole area those should be removed.”
Before Nagaraju joined the BJP, Limbavali took great interest in preparing the sketch of storm water drain and getting the order from the local tahsildar to raze all buildings belonging to Nagaraju. Reddy quips, “But now, Minister Limbavali is guarding encroachments.”
The minister’s U-turn forced Reddy to complain to the Lokayukta and the chief minister’s office (CMO) about BBMP’s refusal to raze encroachments. Lokayukta has already started an investigation and the CMO has directed the BBMP to look into the matter.
‘NO CLEAR IDEA’
When Bangalore Mirror contacted Nagaraju, he maintained that he joined the BJP because he liked Limbavali’s work and not to safeguard his buildings. “As far as encroachments are concerned, I don’t have a clear idea. There may be an encroachment of about 2-3 feet,” he added.