In what is a blatant violation yet again by the Sai Baba temple authorities, they have brazenly encroached another large stretch of the median park on 19th Main Road in Sector 3, HSR Layout, to build a metal and concrete structure. This is in addition to the median park they had already encroached several years ago to build the temple. Despite protests and complaints from residents, no action is taken in the last one month.
“The temple itself is illegal and the MLA himself said many years ago that the BMTF has been given orders to demolish it, but nothing has been done on this, and now this additional violation reeks of the rotten system we have today,” said one Sector 3 resident on condition of anonymity. The temple came up many years ago despite vociferous protests from the residents due to MLA Satish Reddy’s blessings. The residents blame him for the mess caused by the temple today, like traffic jams whenever festivals happen.
One BBMP official said, “The engineers should take action. In the beginning, the residents opposed when they saw the sheet structure. Now, the temple authorities have concretised the floor as well.”
We urge BBMP engineer Srinivas and Joint Commissioner (Bommanahalli) Dr Soujanya to immediately take action and send the right message to the encroachers of public spaces across HSR Layout and Bangalore. “We don’t want them to say ‘election duty’ and get away with this,” said one resident. “Encroaching a public park is a serious offence. No excuse is a good excuse. They have to take action now.”
We have informed both Srinivas and Dr Soujanya. We will keep you posted on what happens next.
