Addl land allotted to company: forum

BANGALORE: In another round of allegations related to the decadeold Ejipura EWS quarters issue, the Forum Against EWS Land Grab has claimed through an RTI reply that over one acre 21.8 guntas additional land is being handed over to Maverick Holdings Limited.
"We had filed a query under RTI. In their reply on April 29, the engineer-in-chief of BBMP has indicated that apart from the already handed over 14 acres 5.2 guntas land, one acre 21.08 guntas is to be handed over to the said company.The said land is outside the scope of EWS land. Nearly 100 families of pourakarmikas, who were re-settled there after their quarters collapsed at Marenahalli near JP Nagar a decade ago, will lose their dwellings," said Prabhakar Rajendran, convener of the forum.
Poor people affected
Isaac Arul Selva, secretary, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), said the map furnished by the MP along with the reply to the RTI application indicates that Koramangala Primary Health Centre (PHC), serving eight slums that are home to 10,000 families, is situated within the land which is to be handed over to Maverick company . "This will rob them of health facility," he said.
No one will be displaced
Local BBMP corporation Vijayan said no one will be displaced. "Only vacant land will be given to Maverick company," he asserted.
Residents upset
As the news spread, the residents became upset. "I have been allotted this land as I was serving the BBMP as a pourakarmika. I have built this house (3-storeyed ) by raising a loan of Rs 15 lakh. I will not allow anybody to take my property,"said Venkatesh, one of the resident of the locality whose house stands hardly 50 feet away from the boundary of the EWS land and falls within the said 'additional' land. He also showed various documents in support.