Bengaluru: A BDA layout illegally on a lake bed? Shocking, but it’s now a bone of contention between the revenue department and the BDA. While the revenue department was conducting demolitions of illegal structures in Banaswadi, the demolition squad, on Saturday, came across 110 houses which were constructed on BDA allotted sites, supposedly legal as it is a government agency!.

In 1985, the BDA formed a layout and allotted 228 sites on which these houses were built. This has left the government in a rather sticky situation. The demolition team did not demolish the houses pending further discussions between the two arms of the government.

“Why didn’t the revenue department stop the BDA from forming a layout at that time? Our houses are at least 29 years old. We blame both the revenue department and BDA. We are neither against lake development nor encroachment. But what about justice? Does the government want to have a lake on this debris and human corpses?” asked an emotional DS Rajashekar, executive president, Federation of North East Bengaluru Residents’ Welfare Association, and a BDA site allottee.

The site allottees also want to take it up legally. “We are watching, but don’t know what to do.This was going on since January. All the necessary documents were given to the revenue de partment. If nothing works, we might have to take legal recourse. We are pressur ing the BDA to take this route too. The government has woken up after so many years, is it our fault?” BDA commissioner T Sham Bhat told the Times of India the BDA layout was not carved out of the lake bed. “Going by what our engineers have told us, as per the Laksh man Rao report submitted in the late 1980s, there were no characteristics of the lake here. I will look into the matter anyway and we will re spond if we are issued any notice,” he said.