BCC, Army, police hit a roadblock!

BANGALORE: Who owns the Cubbon Road? Defence authorities have removed nearly 300 reflectors put up on the prestigious Cubbon Road in the city, stating the road belongs to them and no work can be carried out by any civic agency without their express consent.
This has kicked off a fierce debate as to the ownership of these roads, with Bangalore city police commissioner S.Mariswamy dubbing the action of defence authorities as “very funny... this is the height of madness. Cubbon Road does not belong to anyone. These roads are meant for public utility’’.
The reflectors on Cubbon Road were put up by Jatti International Inc. at a cost of Rs 9 lakh, for whom the work order was awarded by the Bangalore city police. Similar reflectors have been put up on Sankey Road, Airport Road, Kamaraj Road, Queen’s Road, Mehkri Circle Underpass, St Mark’s Road, among others.
The requisite tax for putting up the reflectors was duly paid to the BCC. Several roads, including Cubbon and a part of the city’s golden mien M.G. Road, belong to the defence authorities, and any civil work on these should have their sanction — an issue hotly contested by the BCC and the police.
Commander for Karnataka, Kerala and Goa Sub-area, Brigadier M.P. Singh, said: “Nobody can give permission on defence land to put up hoardings or any form of advertisements. There is a court order to this effect. Here, they have done it without taking any permission. I don’t know what their vested interests are.’’
He contended that the reflectors were causing a major obstruction for walking. BCC commissioner M.R. Sreenivasa Murthy trotted out negotiation as a solution to “transfer all these roads (held by defence authorities) to the BCC’’.
Stating he will take up the issue at the appropriate level, a shocked Mariswamy said: “We are not doing these improvements for our own purpose. There is a way to deal with it. If it is the army land, then they should fence it off and disallow vehicles. I can’t imagine anything funnier. There’s a limit.’’