The High Court of Karnataka on Monday accepted the action plans submitted by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for prevention and removal of encroachments of storm-water drains and lakes by fixing responsibility on the designated officers and timeline for taking various steps.
However, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale and Justice Krishna S. Dixit asked the BBMP to reduce the timeline for initiating the process of taking action so that process could be expedited without loss of time.
Earlier, in its action plan on lakes, the BBMP had said that 21 lakes are free from encroachments, of the 202 under its jurisdiction.
Pointing out that 19 lakes are disused, two lakes are yet to be handed over to the civic body, and one lake is partially handed over, the BBMP said the process of identifying the removal of encroachments of the remaining 159 lakes would be initiated in a phased manner in the next 16 weeks by taking up 10 lakes per week.
On SWD encroachments, the BBMP has said that authorities for lodging complaints, receiving complaints, conducting surveys, removal of identified encroachments, to initiate complaint before special court for land grabbing cases, to provide protection during removal of encroachments have been notified by the State government on August 28 along with responsibilities of each of the authorities.
The BBMP has said that each instance of removal of every encroachment would take about 172 days, provided no stay from the jurisdictional courts and tribunals.
On noticing that there are around 50% of posts of assistant engineers and assistant executive engineers vacant in the BBMP and many are working in deputation, the Bench directed the government to take steps to fill up these posts expeditiously.
While directing the BBMP to proceed with its action plan, the Bench asked the BBMP to submit status report in six weeks.
