The Koramangala 'lake' saga

Here's an example of how close tracking and sustained action by alert citizens has put a brake on the moves of some land-sharks to grab close to 17 acres of prime public land, whose value in the market could be in the range of Rs 700 cr. Hats off to the members of the Koramangala Initiative, Koramangala 3rd Block Assn, and CAF, who came together to pursue the matter.

The biggest learning from the exercise is how such joint action by citizens motivates and emboldens the dedicated officers in the government into taking requisite action to check-mate the moves of corrupt lot who have been bought off by the land-sharks. Hats off to these government officials too.

The following mail by the same member who posted the earlier mail, details the new developments:

a) First the good news.

We now have in our hands a formal internal letter /document by UDD squashing the earlier denotifcation order on the 6.21 acres. The land reverts back to government.

We are aware there has been some anxiety by many, on delay in filing a writ. We had to go a little slow (while all documents for a writ was in place) because of the behind scene efforts leading to the squashing of the order. We also thought it best not to broadcast these efforts, till they lead to some end results.

b) Does this mean end of the issue:

We are circumspect on this, especially since this whole case has been dragging for over 10 years, with various twists and turns. We are asking our legal counsel to examine this last squashing development to see, if this can lead to fresh litigation and if we can do anything to preempt that if required.

c) What this means. the not so good news

All this means is that we are back to square one on our original PIL, which essentially stakes the claim, to keep this 6.21 acres and the 11acres behind (tank bed) as open area and change the Masterplan 2015, marking this as built up area.( the 1995 CDP showed this a public/semi public/park area).

We just had a bit of diversion, and the overall fight is very much still open.

d) The not good news at all

While all this action has been going on, there is now an active appeal at Supreme Court, challenging the Karnataka High Court order on the 11 acres declaring that as government property and a government tank.

Our fear here is whether the government will fight this case as it needs to be fought. The high court order is extremely telling and in favour of government, but a lot of that was due to our legal counsel, being in court and keeping a check and advising government lawyers.

As of now, there is ground for apprehension, of GOKs intention, shown in the tardy nature of filing objections, and fighting at the submission of appeal itself.

The broad strategy here for us is
i) Implead ourselves as concerned citizens in the Supreme Court. Chances of court allowing us to formally participate is marginal.
ii) As in the high court have a watch on proceedings and feed GOK lawyers.
iii) Ensure through behind the scenes activity that at least one government respondent files objections which are very strong, reflecting fully the high court verdict.

This would possibly entail getting a senior counsel at Supreme Court at the stage of filing for impleading itself.

e) Next steps

Most of the earlier strategies stay, with some modifications.

i) Signature petition to GOK, with the new developments and Supreme Court issue brought forward, but essentially to change Masterplan 2015 definition of this space.
ii) Press interactions on the overall issue. We have already contacted press and they have enough interests.
iii) Funding /resourcing for both PIL in high court and Supreme Court. There have already been some hands up on this.
iv) Fight the Supreme Court issue as defined above.

f) A NOTE

I am aware to the uninitiated that a lot of the above might not have meaning without past information.
Please give me a call for any clarification and details.

I would also like to acknowledge those of you, who have already put their hands up in support.

More later as things unfold.

VM


 

With the Supreme Court not entertaining the appeal (by the land sharks fronted by the original owner of the neighbouring land) against the High Court order reverting the 11 acre stretch of the open area to the BDA with directions to restore it to its original form as a lake, the ground was all set for the task to begin. The overall consensus amongst the community was that the restoration work should ensure as close a 'lie of the land' to the origial, and as close to nature, as possible, in order that it serves the main purpose of flood control, and simultaneous imporovement in the water table in the surrounding areas, while also providing for a much needed lung space in the highly developed locality.

Fearing that, left to itself, the BDA will go in for a 'soup bowl' design, along with its accompanying artificialities, normally seen in all its lake developments, the "Koramangala Initiative" put together a technical team comprising residents and known city experts to draw up a "concept plan" in line with the community's thinking. The tech team did an exhaustive job, covering topopgraphical, hydrological, geographical, geological studies, delving into archival records, conducting fresh surveys, etc, all over some six months and over many meetings, at the end of which it made a presentation of the draft to the local community. Based on the inputs thereof, it finalised the plan, following which the Koramangala Initiative formally handed it over to the BDA Commissioner, requesting that the restoration work be done in overall conformity with it.

The Commissioner forwarded the plan to the LDA for its scrutiny, and subsequently, between them, they lauded the community for the exemplary task undertaken, and in fact went on to suggest that it could become a model for all future lake restoration/ development initiatives in the state.

Now, all that was required thereon was for the BDA to convert the plan into a DPR, which one had thought the BDA had the in-house capacity to undertake, and thereafter, tender out the civil works.

So, even as we were waiting for the BDA to proceed further, we were told that the DPR work was being outsourced to a Mumbai consultancy firm, along with those for some 10 to 20 other lakes. While we were not averse to a professional agency undertaking the job, we were apprehensive about unnecessary cost burdens, BDA after all being funded out of tax payers' money. We asked the BDA officials to set up a three-way meeting between them, the consultants' representatives, and us to formalise our involvement. The BDA officials arranged this in their HSR layout office, where we formally handed over to the consultants' representatives a copy of our Concept plan (BDA had given one already), and stressed on the importance of the DPR being in line with the plan submitted. We also offered to set up meetings with our panel of experts should they require any inputs/ clarifications from any of them.

A month or two after close follow up, the consultants called to say that their draft report was ready, and we could take a look at it, something we had insisted on before their finalisation of the same.

When we went through the draft DPR, the contents came to us as a total shock, to say the least. It was a total sham. It had nothing at all in common with the Concept plan submitted. The consultants had obviously managed to access the soft copy of the DPR for the Kengeri/ Viswabharathi layout, prepared perhaps by the BDA itself, and had done a 'cut-paste' job, and a bad one at that, since it had left too many tell-tale signs. And, for that, they were going to be charging BDA some Rs 75 lakhs. And, all this when they very well knew that the local citizens were very closely involved. This audacity on their part is what is most galling.

A brief analysis of the draft DPR, included in our letter of 16th June submitted to the BDA Commissioner, conveying our overall disquiet over the entire issue, is reproduced below:  

A) Overall Lake Concept

It was clearly agreed we will not follow a "soup bowl" design. The consultant's design is in fact the much more expensive and ecologically unfriendly soup bowl. This one point itself demonstrates that the DPR has not been taken seriously, or even worse prepared for the sole purpose of showing high costs.

B) Wholly wrong design parameters and assumptions

• Area of existing lake is stated as 7.14 Ha which is non-existent and the proposed lake area is 8.12 Ha.As per site it should be closer to 3 Ha. Consequently most assumptions in the estimates are wrong.
• The lake and wetland has been designed to inundate the entire site thereby necessitating the killing of all the full grown trees existing at site. As per the drawings the wetland starts right near the main road.
• The drawings in the DPR are rather vague and non-technical. The depth profiles do not take into account the hydrogeology and the proposed ecology.
• There is a proposed 30mt buffer in the text of the DPR, but is not reflected in any of the drawings.

C) Indications that the report is fabricated without an actual study.

• There is no clarity on the diversion of sullage water entering the lake. Instead an unnecessarily expensive requirement of STPs/ TTPs is projected. The DPR mentions of water analysis done to presumably justify the STP. HOWEVER IT IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE THAT THERE IS NO WATER IN THE LAKE FOR ANY SUCH ANALYSIS TO BE DONE AND THERE IS CURRENTLY NO INFLOW INTO THE LAKE.
• "12mt service road on bund connecting kengeri and Visweshvaraya layout"  -  This is a verbatim quote from the recommendation section of the report. Is any further discussion on this DPR required when the whole exercise is obviously just a "cut and paste" job? Kengeri and Visweshwaraya Layout are part of another valley far removed from Mestrikere.
• Recommendations of food courts, fountains, double fencing, and stamped concrete pathways are some of the items that are totally extraneous presumably brought in only to escalate costs.

All of the above are just some of the more obvious issues .There are quite a bit more of contradictions and errors in the DPR not mentioned in this note. It must also be mentioned that the consultants see for themselves a fee in the region of Rs 75 lacs (in the region of 15%) of an obviously inflated DPR costing. We as citizens are concerned at this possible waste of public funds.

The pertinent questions that arise are:

• When almost 80% of the job had already been done, in the form of the Concept Report, and all that was required was conversion of it into a DPR, which one had thought was very much within the capacity of the BDA, with its army of engineers, where was the need to outsource it?
• If choosing to outsource, why a Mumbai based firm, even whose web-site does not claim any expertise in lake restoration/ development work, when there is enough and more extertise available locally?
• Now that Mumbai firm stands exposed, will the jobs entrusted to them be cancelled, and the advances paid recalled?

We are now awiting to hear from BDA on the next steps.

It was clear that giving a letter as above to the BDA Commissioner was going to mean further delay in the work, even as the local community had begun dreaming about the restored lake. However, as a prominent member put it, even if it means some more delay, we cannot be afford to be party to such outrageous goings on in our very back-yard, even as there is this country-wide campaign against such misdeeds, led by Anna Hazare, to which we too have been lending our support, even though in our limited capacity.

The New Indian Express carried a brief report on the matter, which may be accessed here.

At long last, the Bhoomi Pooja for the restoration work will be performed by Sri Ramalinga Reddy, local MLA and honorable Transport Minister, GoK, at 9.30 AM on Friday, the July, 12th.

Incidentally, a document listing out the recommendations, prepared by Sri S Subramanya, a noted naturalist, who was a key participant in the technical team brought together by the local residents, is accessible here. And, accessible here is a short film on the effort by members of Koramangala Initiative.

Hopefully, within another 6 months, we should have a beautiful kere in the midst of Koramangala - largely a result of persistant citizen effort.

Even as the kere was beginning to take shape, there has appeared an "announcement on a notice board of a community hall (with a thank you to the former Bengaluru in-charge minister Ramalinga Reddy), a skeletal structure of what looks could be a future temple and a few constructions on the sprawling site: this modusoperandi has LAND GRAB written all over it. All these have come up in a 3.2 acre lake bed", as per a report (accessible here) in the Bangalore Mirror.

The report further adds - When contacted, transport minister (in the new allocated portfolio) Ramalinga Reddy said he was not aware of the fact that his name was being used to build a concrete structure in the lake premises. "I have not given permission to put up anything there," he said; then he added, sounding as if he was justifying a time-tested usurping tactic: "Earlier some people used to come to the spot and perform poojas; maybe they have tried to build a temple out there because of sentimental and religious reasons."

On why there has been no response to the residents' proposal to revive the lake, Reddy said: "The lake development work by the BDA is underway. It will shortly be transferred to the BBMP and all measures will be taken to protect the lake area."

Ajay Reddy, convenor of the committee, said, "We have complained about the issue several times to the BDA Commissioner, the local MLA and other civic authorities. We only got assurances in return. If BDA had finished the project last year itself, they could have handed over the lake area to the BBMP, who would have provided security and fenced the area."

Well, well, it all seems to fit into the typical land grab pattern. Of course, the citizens are not going to be just sitting and watching the goings on, particularly after having gone all the way to the Supreme court to revive the lake.

Tragically, it's from the citizen's representatives and their cronies that kere's in the city seem to need all the protection.