LIFE AFTER DEBTBy Preethi Ravi, Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Aug 12, 2016, 04.00 AM IST http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/cover-story/Life-after-debt/articleshow/53658704.cms KR Muniraju, who lost his 2-BHK house and now has to worry about repaying the Rs 7-lakh home loan he took to build it
Residents who have lost their homes to the BBMP's demolition drive now have to worry about how to repay home loans — without a home
As bulldozers roared through Doddabommasandra on Thursday -- the sixth day of demolitions -- Muniraju had only two thoughts racing through his head: the home that he lost and the loan that he will have to repay.
KR Muniraju is just one of the several people who have lost their homes to the demolitions being carried out by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in the wake of last month's deluge. It's been a double whammy for most of them -- despite losing their homes, they will have to continue paying their equated monthly instalments (EMIs) for the loans they took to build the house. While many residents built their homes with their savings, a handful took loans from banks given that the BBMP had issued khatas and other public utility companies had provided connections. For all practical purposes, their homes were as legal as they come and banks had no qualms about extending the loans to them.
On Thursday, as restoration work of the storm water drain (SWD) continued in Doddabommasandra, 45-year-old bank employee Muniraju stood amongst the rubble, wistful.
Muniraju lives with a family of five in a two BHK, and is now worried about his home loans; he has a loan of Rs 7 lakh for his house. He has lost his life's earnings in just two days after his house came under the demolition drive. "I am yet to take a decision on the repayment of my loans. I had a 600 sq ft property and I lost around 300 sq ft. Nearly half the property is gone and I am worried," he told Bangalore Mirror.
He alleged that the civic agency had encroached on his property. "BBMP has made me homeless. I have sent my family members to my relative's house, and I will have to decide on my next move," he added.
Munivanthamma, 66, lost almost all her earnings. A two-storey building, which included six houses and two shops, was reduced to just three houses. "My husband worked in Bharat Electronics Limited, and after his death we got Rs 7 lakh from his pension. I invested another Rs 10 lakh to build the house," she said.
The BBMP claims it has razed more than 80 properties in the last two days and the demolitions will continue in the coming days too.
Bengaluru demolition drive: FIR lodged in illegal encroachment case
A FIR was lodged on Thursday against 20 government officials and 6 builders by the Bangalore Metro Politan Task Force (BMPTF) after recommendations from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner Manjunath Prasad.
The BBMP has brought down 822 buildings that have been built illegally on encroached lands. (PTI)
A FIR was lodged on Thursday against 20 government officials and 6 builders by the Bangalore Metro Politan Task Force (BMPTF) after recommendations from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner Manjunath Prasad. Prasad was a part of the meeting of the Joint Committee on Tank encroachment. The meeting was headed by the Speaker K B Koliwad. Earlier in January 2016, a report was submitted by the Koliwad committee, which stated that 835 lakes were safe in the city of Bengaluru whereas at least 645 lakes have been affected by illegal construction.
During the Joint Committee meeting, Prasad said that 75 lakes were under the BBMP and Google maps had helped them identify lakes located within 30-75 metre buffer zones. It has been reported that 1,754 buildings have been constructed between 30-35 metre buffer zones and 4,200 buildings had been constructed within the 30-75 metre buffer zones. These set of buildings include 50 high rise buildings within 15 metres of the lakes.
The rampant encroachment of lakes in the city has led to the death of 112 of the 835 lakes in the Bangalore Urban area. Only 166 of the 1,545 lakes in the Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts have been declared free of encroachments. The Legislative Assembly released documents in January 2016, revealing these statistics. Earlier yesterday, the BBMP had recommended names of 20 government officials who have allowed illegal encroachments in the city. 6 of these officials had retired but the rest have been suspended effective immediately.
Why Bangalore is using Raj-era maps to identify and raze encroachments on its storm-water drains
The civic body has demolished close to 1,000 buildings constructed on canals to prevent flooding – but many claim their structures do not run over a drain.
In late July, residents of southeast Bangalore – the city's IT hub – woke up to knee-high water in their homes. Torrential rains had flooded parts of the city, stirring officials of Bangalore’s municipal corporation into action.
Close to 600 houses were submerged after the city received its heaviest rainfall in five decades.
In response, the civic authorities revived their drive to demolish buildings that have come on up on the city’s storm-water drains, something that they have been undertaking piecemeal over the last three or four years. In all, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanara Palike has identified 1,923 encroachments, of which they have cleared close to 1,000, civic officials said. Of this, close to 150 structures have been razed this month alone.
But the drive, which has displaced hundreds of residents, has met with protests, legal challenges and allegations that the civic body is sparing big developers while going after smaller fish. There is panic spreading among residents who are now wondering whether their building will be next. Many residents have claimed that they were not aware that their homes were built over storm water drains, while others have said there are no such drains in their areas.
Why the frenzy?
Bengalore reportedly has 857 km of storm-water drains, of which 380 km have been encroached upon.
Curiously enough, the municipal corporation has been using village maps that are more than a century old to locate these rajakaluve – as storm water drains are locally called – and identify the structures that have been built over them, allegedly as encroachments.
Some of these maps were drawn in the 1890s, when a lot of what is part of Bangalore city today was village land. Over the years, there has been rampant real estate development in these sections and the landscape has changed to such an extent that it is difficult to locate a point on these village maps on the ground.
Somewhat paradoxically, the municipal authorities has to refer to century-old village maps to reform Bangalore’s sprawling urban landscape today because these maps seem to be the only legally valid land records for these areas.
Whose land is it anyway?
These village records were used by the British for revenue and tax collection in the pre-Independence era. "The only basis of demolition is the mother document, which are the village maps,” said urbanist V Ravichandar. "There are no proper urban documents where storm water drains are notified. The underlying village maps still define the city. Therefore Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike was forced to use village maps. Unfortunately, the citizens here are the victims."
During the ongoing demolition drive, however, many residents complained that they were not aware that their home had come up on land occupied by storm water drains – or that there is no rajakaluve there.
Most home owners also cite deeds and documents to show that they had purchased the house from developers and that this wasn’t an illegal encroachment.
Before staring construction on storm water drains, builders need the approval of the urban planning authority, the Bangalore Development Authority.
Experts, however, said that developers start construction even without this approval. By merely obtaining a sale deed called the khata, huge layouts and complexes have been constructed and sold to unsuspecting citizens. However, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike issues a khata only for the building plan, not for the plot or area where the building is constructed. For this, they only take into account whether the developer has followed guidelines pertaining to parking and other matters.
“People are confusing khata with certificate of everything being kosher,” Ravichandar told Mint. "But the khata was merely a sale deed witnessing a transaction. The plot owners are taking the khata as a security blanket.” M Shivaprasad, technical assistant to the chief engineer of Storm Water Drains Department of the municipal corporation said that since encroachments have not been marked in several of these old maps, the authorities will be conducting a fresh survey in a few areas using more recent maps sketched by the Land Records department in 2012-'13 to identify encroachments. This exercise will take at least a week.
The BBMP has brought down 822 buildings that have been built illegally on encroached lands. (PTI)
