Illegal road reduces lake to muddy puddle; Yeddy blocked
2010 order for its removal

This road that connects to Electronic City illegally encroached onto Gollehalli Lake.

By Shankar C.G.

BANGALORE (Jan. 31)—A road that illegally covers almost one-third of the 9.2-acre Gollehalli Lake in Electronic City has still not been removed as former Chief Minister B.S Yediyurappa illegally overrode a 2010 order by the district commissioner (DC) to demolish it.

According to records obtained by The SoftCopy, the lake, which comes under land-identification Survey No. 15, is considered government property, and in 2007, the road encroached on 2.11 acres of that government estate.

“A lake is clearly a government body,” said Mr. Venkettappa,  an advocate. “If anyone violates the law it is an offence under general provision.”

But a spokesman for Patel Construction Ltd., the company that was in charge of the construction, said the company is guiltless.

“We have not constructed any road over there—we only maintained an existing road as the villagers were using it,” said Mr. Patel, managing director of Patel Construction.

Residents’ complaints ignored

When the resident’s complained to the tehsildar, the village government representative, their complaints fell on deaf ears, so they took their complaints to the DC.

The DC ordered the tehsildar and the Taluk Panchayat Executive, the administrative authority for that district subdivision, to immediately investigate the issue.

The investigations results showed that the land definitively belonged to the government and the road construction was therefore illegal. On receiving the results, the DC ordered a task force to facilitate the immediate removal of the road.

Yediyurappa intervenes

However, the task force was unable to complete their assignment, as Yediyurappa ordered that the demolition work to stop immediately.

Despite Yediyurappa’s intervention authorities on the law maintain that the road’s continued existence is illegal.

“The chief minister doesn’t have any such exceptional right to take such decision,” advocate B.T Venketesh said.

Government officials agree with this assessment, despite the fact that no action has been taken.

Residents are forced to wash their clothes in the lakes muddy waters.

“Covering a lake for any kind of work is a criminal offense. If any such case is found we will take action against them under 192A Karnataka Land Revenue Act 1964,” said Shive Gowda, tehsildar of Anekal Taluk.

Gowda said he was unaware of the status of the road as he only took office in the last six months. But he said he would “take necessary action very soon.”

Lake in bad condition

The lake, which was once used by locals for irrigation, fishing and washing clothes, is now completely muddied, with water levels that are too low for practical use.