Following directions from the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission to issue notice to property owners before proceeding with its demolition drive against encroachments on storm-water drains, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has uploaded revenue maps and records of east and north Bengaluru on its website. These are the documents that officials rely on during the demolition drive.
The civic body has requested people to remove encroachments themselves based on this information, but the maps do not name buildings or specify property identification (PID) numbers. The maps uploaded under the link ‘Survey Settlement and Land Records’, are classified according to taluks instead of zones or specific areas, making it difficult to identify which area will be targeted during the demolition drive.
While survey numbers and extent of land have been mentioned, a property owner will have to go through the village revenue records, and probably visit the local tahsildar to identify whether or not his/her property is on the encroached land.
“There is no BBMP-conducted survey. The storm-water drains have been mapped by the Revenue Department in the lake area which was earlier running through villages. We have released the survey numbers of the areas which are above the storm-water drains. Following this, the revenue officials will be carrying out a field survey and marking out the places where the drains still flow,” said BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad, and added that the list released was exhaustive.
His views were echoed by the Joint Commissioner (East Zone) K.C. Yatish Kumar under whose jurisdiction most of the indicated properties fall.
“Since these buildings (encroachments) are illegal, there is no khata or PID number to identify them. Even if there are, they have been obtained illegally, and more often than not, they are not even correct. So, there is no way in which we can actually point out which apartment or house will get razed,” he said.
