Friends,
Over months, concerned citizens have tried to get the government to enforce the rule of law and stop the illegal construction opposite Agara lake by the builder consortium that includes Mantri and Salarpuria.
Violations galore:
- ignoring zoning regulations declaring the land as sensitive.
- lack of environmental clearance.
- rampant misstatements and untruths presented to get specific clearances from BWSSB, Bescom and Fire Dept.
What's at stake for us?
1. Construction on the wetland leading to Bellandur will adversely affect Bellandur lake and in the worst case situation lead to drying up of the lake itself. Groundwater levels of the entire area will get affected.
The dangers have been vividly brought out by the report published by the Centre for Ecological Studies, IISc which recommended immediate scrapping of the project.
This will worsen water problems for lakhs of citizens -- as it is, Bellandur area - including the village, and apartments and houses on Sarjapur Road and Outer Ring Road, suffer major water problems, depending almost fully on tanker water. HSR and Koramangala water tables are also worsening. What's more, some areas like HSR are also prone to floods.
2. The monitoring report of the Ministry for Environment and Forests, Government of India has commented that the critical condition laid down in the grant of Environmental clearance to the Mantri Project i.e “the natural slope and hydrology of the land shall stay unaltered” is not being adhered to and what is even more alarming “cannot be complied with”.
3. The Lake Development Authority has inspected the site and recommended cancellation of the project.
4. The project involves commitment of huge amounts of water to the two projects. Both projects together will use close to 180 million litres of water a month. That much water is not supplied by BWSSB at present to the entire Koramangala, HSR and Bellandur areas together.
5. There is a real threat of floods and back flows effecting Koramangala and HSR areas because the natural flood plains of Bellandur wetlands will be destroyed by this project.
What are we doing/have done to call off this project?
1. We organized a protest at the site on March 23rd 2014 and around 1,500 citizens from different parts of Bengaluru turned up to support and participate in the event.
Who are we?
Bengaluru is rapidly losing what it is known for:- Lakes and Gardens. The objective of this community is to restore its lost glory as the Garden CIty of India
This group is involved in several community initiatives in this direction including
1. Rejuvenating lakes in Bangalore
2. Town Planning
3. Assisting in Traffic Management
4. Filing RTIs and writ petitions
5. Alerting communities that concern them at local leve
For more details, please visit the facebook group “Reclaim Bengaluru”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1415707848684940
We have to fight this disaster in the making if we want a liveable neighbourhood!
Efforts to get the govt to act have hit a dead end. Time is running out!
Please act now!!
!!Jai Hind!!
