'Rehabilitate Homeless Migrants within 2 Weeks': K'taka HC Raps Govt over Illegal Bengaluru Demolition

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Monday came down heavily on the state government for not following the 'due process of law' while demolishing illegal sheds in Bengaluru's Bellandur three weeks ago.

Hundreds of people were left homeless on January 19, 2020 when JCB machines razed down shanties in Kariyammana Agrahara, on alleged suspicion that they were occupied by 'illegal Bangladeshis'.

Chief Justice Abhay Shreenivas Oka directed the government to submit a plan for immediate relief for all those evicted within 2 weeks. It ordered the state to provide relief, either through monetary compensation or temporary rehabilitation to all those evicted.

It also directed the state to formulate a scheme for rehabilitation of all victims within a month. The court said that the onus is on the state to identify these victims and the state could take the help of the petitioner in doing so. Meanwhile, the petitioner has submitted a preliminary list consisting of names 144 families who were living in those sheds at the time of demolition.

While both the state government and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) have maintained that they did not conduct the demolition, photos show that demolition was done in the presence of police personnel, the court observed.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, which noted that the concerned authority had not visited the site or conducted any inquiry to verify the details of the residents.

The engineer responsible for the demolition, Narayan Swamy, who has since been relieved of his duties from the BBMP, had allegedly taken action days after BJP MLA Aravind Limbavalli put out a tweet stating he had instructed the authorities concerned to take action against "illegal activities" in the "illegally constructed sheds", some of which housed "illegal immigrants of Bangladesh".

All the occupants had turned out to be poor Indians — some from the northeastern states, many others from north Karnataka — who had come to Bengaluru to eke out a living.

The State will now have to submit its plan of providing relief on February 26, when the case will next be heard.