EWS quarters residents continue to await justice

Ahna Prakash| NT

 Bengaluru

 Residents of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quarters in Ejipura, who became homeless after a building collapsed in 2003, still await the completion of EWS quarters.

 Lakshmana Murthy of EWS Welfare Association said that around 1,521 families didn’t receive compensation despite promises by the BBMP and contempt orders filed in the Karnataka High Court.

 “People who had to leave are scattered all over the city. Some died from hunger, while some still await justice. People have been waiting for justice for more than 20 years now,” said Murthy. Murthy claims that these rresidentswere promised alternative accommodation at a new EWS quarters, but it was never completed

“People who were displaced from the site were living in terrible conditions in tin sheeted houses in Ejipura slum. But in 2012, the BBMP officials forcefully evicted these people from the site, leaving us nowhere to go, they said they will be shifting us to another EWS quarter, but that never happened,” he added.

 After the building collapsed in 2003, the government promised to reconstruct buildings for people. The task was handled by BBMP. But instead of building the quarters themselves, BBMP entered into the agreement with Maverick in 2012.

As per the agreement, of the 15.64 acres of land, Maverick should build EWS quarters on eight acres, with the remaining 7.64 acres split between Maverick and BBMP for commercial use. Maverick had to finish construction within two years of getting the plan sanction from BBMP.

But residents claim that not even 10 per cent of the work has been completed.

 “When Maverick was given the project, we continuously visited the construction site and BBMP offices to ask for updates. But they would just answer that the project will start soon. Later, they stopped the construction during the pandemic. Even when the high court has directed BBMP to start the construction, nothing is being done,” said Murthy.

Uday Garudachar, the owner of Maverick Holdings, cited pending approvals from the state government as the reason for stalling the project for so long. “We have already built more than 100 houses by investing Rs 200 crore. The project has been held back because approvals are pending from the government’s side,” he said