Source - Cititen Matters:
In July'09, one year before former BBMP Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena left to head the BDA, he issued an order to shutdown the Technical Vigilance Cell (TVC) call centre. The centre was available for citizens in Bengaluru to blow the whistle on illegally constructed buildings (also called plan sanction violations, in government parlance). BBMP went ahead and shut it down.
This week, Meena denied issuing the order itself and claimed the call centre was functioning when he left office (June this year). Citizen Matters spoke to Meena over the telephone after obtaining a copy of the letter with his signature on it, from the TVC. The order is in Kannada and the signature ‘Bharat Lal' is also in Kannada.
BBMP's TVC call centre - the only public mechanism in Bengaluru to monitor and clamp down on building violations - was setup in December 1st 2008 through an announcement in the dailies. When it was shut down within seven months, the cell had received 794 complaints and its work had even begun to have an impact.
In his letter, Meena, had also ordered complaint processing on illegal buildings to be ''decentralised'' to the zonal Joint Commissioners (JCs) of the BBMP from July 13th 2009. Accordingly all complaints that the TVC had received until then were moved to the offices of the JC and public complaints ceased to be accepted.
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An excellent report
This is a great piece of investigation by Navya P K and Vaishnavi Vittal - kudos to them !
It's quite obvious that BBMP has been looking the other way when byelaws are being violated all around. Unfortunately, we cannot blame BBMP alone - the people are equally responsible.
Who will take notice?
Indeed it is an excellent effort from Navya P K and Vaishnavi Vittal. I sincerely pray for the success of their crusades.
Since the system and we as part of that system are so corrupt and neck deep into it, very few crusades of fighting corruption has actually seen their fruits of hard work, courage and bravery.
We have seen the treatment meted out to Thehlka team by the party with difference. Actually their law minister event threaten for arresting the Thehlka team for the sting operation. Luckily in a recent judgment, Supreme Court has put their foot down on such mis-adventures of likes of Party with difference or the grand old party of India.
Given these circumstances, it needs lot of nerves to embark on such endeavors. The challenge is not the exposure but the cleaning up that is needed after wards. The cleaning can not be done by the crusaders by themselves but by the Babus and their political masters. It requires saints of them to accept the ill deeds and do the cleaning.
Even in this report the crusade is a really eye opener but my optimism stops at the thoughts of who would UNDO the act of closing the TVC?
HC's scathing remarks
Karnataka High Court on Wednesday observed that there were a bunch of dead woods in the Bruhad Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and until they were removed, nothing beneficial will happen to the city.
"The engineers, officers and some of the corporators are cockasses. They torture the residents of the city through various ways. When I was a lawyer I was made to go from desk to desk for one year to get a building plan sanctioned", Justice Rammohan Reddy said.
Justice Reddy also questioned the government advocate on how the BBMP officials did not notice two blocks of apartments being erected right in front of their eyes?
For the full report in the New Indian Express, click here
What's noticeable of recent is the vigor with which the courts, both in the state and at the centre, have been coming down on the executive. Well, given the general governance deficit seen all around, the judiciary seems to provide the only hope.
Illegal buildings are dime a
Illegal buildings are dime a dozen in Bengaluru. It is a perennial source of revenue for the babus.