The residents of HAL 3rd stage in Thippasandra ward are up in arms against an attempt to encroach a public playground to develop a private cricket academy with seven concrete pitches.
Residents are tightlipped about the people behind the 'encroachment' of the BBMP playground, but BJP leader N R Ramesh is quite vocal. He has accused the Congress MLC M Narayanaswamy's son N Sagar of using the playground on three acres for personal gain. The BJP leader has lodged a police complaint against MLA's son with the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF), besides writing to BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad.
In his complaint, Ramesh has said that for the past 10 days, concretisation is in full swing to develop a 'private cricket academy' on BBMP land for commercial use. Some residents staged a dharna and lodged complaints with various civic authorities, but were threatened. Speaking to DH, a resident said, "When we started a signature drive, we were threatened."
Ward engineer Ravindra Babu distanced himself from the issue, saying that it comes under the Horticulture department and he had no role to play in it. He, however, confirmed that Narayanaswamy had written to the commissioner to give the land to First Touch Cricket Academy to train 'poor children.'
Horticulture superintendent C Santosh Kumar said BBMP Council's approval was a must for any work. "No approvals have been given so far, but work is going on, which is against the rules. We have warned the developers to stop the work immediately," the officer said. Kumar also accused schools in the locality of misusing the playground.
"These schools park 25 vans at the playground every day. The playground is not school property. We should collect fine and rent from them for parking their vehicles on the Palike playground," he said. When contacted, Narayanaswamy said at the time of the election, some students had requested him to provide a playground for cricket training.
"I tried to fulfil the wish, but some people intentionally made it controversial," said Narayanswamy. He said that though his son was a cricketer, he was not behind the academy plan. He accused the schools of instigating parents against the academy plan.