There was a stand-off between BBMP officials and citizens of an apartment complex in Hulimavu for several hours on Thursday over demolition of their compound wall.
Residents surrounded the earth-movers to prevent them from going ahead with the demolition. The police were called in to control the crowd. After several hours of arguments, the civic body razed the compound wall of Suraksha Golden Palms Apartments at 5 p.m.
The arguments
While officials maintained that the wall had encroached upon a storm water drain (SWD), residents insisted otherwise.
“According to the village map, the rajakaluve (primary drain) does not come under the wall,” said Rangarajan R., treasurer of the apartment society. “There are rumours that owners of a nearby cluster of houses had asked the BBMP to divert SWDs that were actually running under their properties.”
However, the BBMP said that it has not authorised any diversion.
There are over 150 apartments in the complex and no one had expected the civic body to target the building.
“We had visited this area earlier and were not expecting trouble. However, it was 5 p.m. by the time we finished the work,” said Siddegowda, Chief Engineer, Dasarahalli Zone.
The BBMP has temporarily stopped demolitions. It is in the process of carrying out a fresh survey and officials said they will be resuming the encroachment clearance drive either on Saturday or next week.
