Curfew no bar for encroachers in Kalyan Nagar

Residents say in the night, a compound wall is being constructed on a CA site that houses 100-yr-old memorial

Seems like the lockdown has come as a cover for the activities of encroachers to flourish under.

For long, they have eyed a civic amenities site where a children’s park and a memorial to the Chinnaswamy Mudaliar family exist in Kalyan Nagar in North-East Bengaluru. Now, during the curfew, residents say encroachers are busy building a compound wall at the site in the night. “Even during curfew, construction work is going on in full swing at night. This raises a question about the temple committee’s involvement in the activity,” said Sharmila Ravinder Dhareshwar, great grand-daughter of Chinnaswamy Mudaliar, pointing fingers at the trustees of the temple that also exists on the site.

Dhareshwar also took a video of the construction work. “I will complain against the police for not taking action against those responsible for the construction work in violation of curfew,’’ she said. Dhareshwar, who is also Managing Trustee of Chinnaswamy Mudaliar Monument Memorial Trust, said the Trust has already put in an application with the BDA Commissioner for maintaining the said CA site number 10.

She had brought to the notice of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) the illegal construction work going on between 7 pm and 7 am at the civic amenities site.“There is a police chowki next to the site managed by Banaswadi Police. I request you to take urgent action against the perpetrators. My forefathers’ 100-year-old memorials are on the site where illegal construction is happening in violation of all lockdown norms. I am a mother of two children and cannot be leaving them unattended to go to the police station to lodge complaint. Hence, I’m using social media platform,’’ Dhareshwar wrote in a complaint addressed to the DCP (East).

The DCP (East) has responded saying he would attend to the complaint and get the matter checked.

BDA assistant engineer Ravi Kumar said he would visit the spot. “I am unaware of construction work going on during the night. We had stopped work last year,” he said.

On April 11, 2019, Bangalore Mirror has written about how memorials built in 1923 were being encroached upon. According to locals, the encroachment of the civic amenities site began in 2005.