Karnataka minority commission chief demands relocation of Kogilu homeless
BENGALURU: Karnataka State Minority Commission Chairman U Nisar Ahmed, who visited Fakeer Layout in Kogilu near Yelahanka on Wednesday, blamed Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) officials for failing to follow due process in slum evictions. He said GBA should have taken measures to prevent encroachment in the first place. The chairman interacted with the victims and heard their pleas, and assured them that the Minority Commission would take steps to address them. Ahmed told TNIE , It is the responsibility of government departments to guard their properties. It first allows the shanties to mushroom. After they spend their hard-earned money on building homes, they reduce them to rubble. He wanted to know where the government departments that carried out the demolition drive, were all these years. Condemning the act, Ahmed said the timing of the demolition is such that the poor are freezing in the cold weather and demanded they be relocated. He termed the demolition of homes inhuman. I have asked the departments concerned to put up temporary shelters and accommodate them at community halls and provide them with food, water and medicine, Nisar Ahmed said. The slum-dwellers, some of whom have erected temporary sheds next to their demolished homes, complained that a ganji kendra (gruel centre) is being set up at Hegde Nagar, which is far. They said GBAs marshals were pressurising them to take their belongings and shift to Hegde Nagar, and declared they would not shift. Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Shashidhar Kosambe, said a suo motu case was registered and he would be visiting the affected soon to take suitable action. He said he had discussed the demolition with GBA Chief Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao.
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