The dumping yard near Parameshwara’s house Pushkar V
BENGALURU:In the upmarket area of Sadashivanagar, are tree-lined streets, smooth roads, palatial bungalows belonging to the city’s politicos, with a Husky or two being walked in every corner. A few hundred metres away from deputy chief minister G Parameshwara’s home in Aramane Nagar, lies an empty plot occupied by rodents, snakes, stray dogs feasting on wasted food, mounting garbage, debris, mud and more.
“There used to be a house on this site that got demolished 10 years ago. Now it is a jungle and garbage dump that the BBMP occasionally clears. It is a huge mess, with sanitary pads, food, junk, construction material, wires, weed, and more. Things decay, thus stinking up the locality, inviting around 20 stray dogs, rats, bandicoots and even snakes,” says Jyotinath Ganguly, resident of the locality for the last 40 years and director of Capgemini.Jyotinath is among the many residents who has spent thousands of rupees to clear the site themselves.
“My mother had a beautiful garden, which she was forced to cement recently because the rats dug holes and damaged all the plants. They even entered our house. This is serious lack of management. Whoever comes to power, doesn't care. Even the deputy CM lives down the same lane,” Jyotinath says, adding, “We have made attempts to identify the owner, but the BBMP keeps it a secret. Every few years, politicians come canvassing for elections. The moment we point to this property, they walk away. No one seems to know whom it belongs to.”
In an attempt to make sense of this secrecy surrounding this site, unconfirmed gossip about the plot belonging to an influential person or it being a 'benami' property, has spread across the area.
Vasantha, a 70-year-old, whose compound wall is adjoining this dumpyard, has paid from her pocket to clear the area several times, only to find it back to its old form. “ If any home has some renovation done, the junk is invariably disposed here. Two weeks ago, my daughter spent ` 16,000 to hire a JCB digger and clean the mess. They dug out 10 truck loads of mud, weed, grass and garbage, but this has cleared only half the plot,” complains Vasantha, who expresses her disgust over it becoming a public urinal for commuters.
A resident, on conditions of anonymity, says speaking to the BBMP, corporator or contractors has amounted to nothing.
“We are fed up of cleaning someone else’s property. BBMP must either track down the owner or fence the area themselves. The Sadashivnagar RWA is quite active and has lodged complaints several times verbally and on the BBMP Sahaya app,” the localite informs.
“They come and clear part of the site when we complain, but there is no barricade to prevent more dumping. It is not fair that I have had to pay ` 9,000- `15,000 the past three times I got it cleared. The officials promised to clear the spot once and for all four months ago, but asked us not to expect anything more,” the source adds.
Husband of corporator Sumangala B, Keshava, tells City Express, "It is a private property, so we can't run behind the owner. We clean the space now and then because it affects residents, but we know it is not a final solution. We have to track down the owner.”
The authorities' lethargy over the past decade raises suspicion among citizens.
“What else can we do at the moment? Once we find the owner, we can instruct them to clean the site or pay the fine. We will ask them to fence it too, but most often, property owners ask us to mind our own business,” Keshava says.
“There are about 200 vacant sites like this one in our ward. We plan to clean all of them once, but we can't do more. The owner of this site could be an NRI. The pay their property taxes online, so we never get to know the identity. We will try to locate them,” he promises.
