The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Thursday demolished the east compound wall of the 12-acre campus housing the elite Bengaluru club Bowring Institute. This compound wall was by the pavement on St Mark’s Road in Central Business District (CBD) in the heart of the city.
East Zonal Joint Commissioner Pallavi KR led the demolition drive. Speaking to TNM, she said, “It was an illegal unauthorised construction. I was ordered by the BBMP Commissioner (BH Anil Kumar) to take action based on a Petitions Committee report of the state assembly. The authorities including us have warned them again and again but they did not pay any heed. Since this is a government leased land, they need to take necessary permission.”
However, the club has alleged that they were not given any notice before carrying out the demolition.
HS Srikanth, the secretary of the club said, “I am surprised that they deemed this to be a new construction as the compound wall was more than 100 years old, there are many old Eucalyptus trees and the TenderSure construction had done some damage. On top of that, last year’s heavy rain almost made the wall shaky and we had to re-lay it. So in case, there was a tragedy because of the wall or anybody was hurt, wouldn’t we have been held responsible for that?”
He added, “Anyway, there is something which doesn’t meet the eye. The club management will meet the BBMP Commissioner and explain our position.”
This incident comes after it was reported that the club will have to part with 50ft x 100ft of space for allegedly violating state government norms. This 150ft x 100ft of space has been rented out by the club to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to run a fuel station.
The whole land was granted to Bowring Institute under Karnataka Land Grant rules. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that it had rented out parts of its land to the third party after obtaining permission but it had not remitted 50% of the rent to the government as agreed.
For this, the club was also expected to cough up a fine of Rs 3.1 crore. The fine amount was based on the calculation made by the CAG report in 2014.
However, Bowring Institute refuted the allegations saying they have paid the 50% remission regularly to the state Treasury. It said that the land was sub-leased based on a 1969 Government Order (GO).
It even said that the club had satisfactorily replied to a showcase notice issued by the Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner’s office.