Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday submitted before the Karnataka High Court that it had not carried out the demolition of sheds in Kariyammana Agrahara.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the demolition drive in the state capital on January 19 when several sheds were brought down after suspicion that “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” were living there.
The demolition had taken place days after BJP MLA Aravind Limbavalli tweeted that he had instructed authorities concerned to take action against "illegal activities" in the "illegally constructed sheds", some of which housed "illegal immigrants of Bangladesh". Limbavali's tweet from January 12 was based on videos doing rounds on social media.
It was later found the residents were mostly Indians.
The bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar was hearing a PIL filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) against the eviction of these residents in the shanties in Bellandur ward.
The BBMP on record made its submission that it had not carried out the demolition. It also informed the court that the assistant executive engineer, who had sought police forces for the operation, had done so after receiving complaints from residents about the presence of illegal sheds, claiming its residents were causing a nuisance.
Responding to this, the bench “sarcastically” said the BBMP must promote the engineer for acting so promptly (as soon as the residents had complained). The engineer, Narayan Swamy, was relieved of his civic body duties after BBMP senior officials said they were not aware of the demolition. Swamy, who was on deputation at the BBMP, has been sent back to his parent department – the Public Works Department (PWD). The BBMP has also written to PWD to initiate departmental action against Swamy for razing the shanties.
On January 11, the Marathahalli police had issued notices to owners of the sites in the area stating that the sheds housed illegal Bangladeshis who must be evicted. A police notice issued on five days later withdrew the previous one, stating that the information about all foreigners residing in the shanties must be provided to the police as per the Foreigners' Act.
Swamy’s letter to the police was sent on January 18. Both the police and the BBMP said they had not carried out the demolition.
The court has asked the BBMP to file its objections to all parties by Saturday. The matter will next be heard on Monday.
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