Karnataka - Bangalore   

Project workers `trespass' into homes at Challakere

Sharath S. Srivatsa

No notices served, procedures not followed, say residents

BANGALORE: Stunned residents of Challakere on Thursday afternoon watched the officials of Karnataka Road Development Corporation Ltd. (KRDCL) erecting marker stones inside their homes for the expressway project connecting Outer Ring Road with international airport at Devanahalli.

Officials, accompanied by surveyors, went about doing their work with police protection amidst opposition by residents who said that notices had not been issued to them and the officials had started marking their properties already. The residents argued with the police officials on the issue of providing security to surveyors, who had trespassed on their property.

A resident said: "We have not been issued any notice so far or no official has informed us. They (authorities) came on Thursday with heavy police security and dug up the ground to place the markers."

Soon after the KRDCL officials left the place, the residents gathered to remove the markers stating that the officials had trespassed their premises to erect the stone markers. The officials should issue preliminary notification and call for objection before taking up such a move. In this case, such steps had not been followed, said M.T. Raja Reddy, who filed a public interest litigation to save the Challakere Lake.

Mr. Raja Reddy even alleged that the officials were deviating from the gazette notification and fixed stones 500 metres away from the original notification. Many residents, who were staging a demonstration seeking re-alignment of the expressway, rushed to the spot to prevent the authorities erecting the concrete markers and joined the local residents in their protest.

When contacted, B.K. Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), said the local police had been deployed in the area where survey work was taken up, and no untoward incident took place. KRDCL officials were not available for comments.

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