Bengaluru doesn't need knee jerk reactions. Penalise builders, authorities for holistic solution: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Apart from demolition of encroachments that led to massive flooding in Bengaluru, Biotech industry veteran Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has suggested that city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) should also be penalised for giving permission to construct the illegal structures.

She said the anti-encroachment drive launched by the BMMP this week to clear illegal structures was a long overdue measure to address water logging.

According to reports, the encroachers include big IT companies, tech parks, hospitals, educational institutions and apartment complexes. Names of Wipro, Columbia Asia Hospital have surfaced in the BBMP encroachment demolition list.


"The question that begs to be answered is whether there will be a parallel investigation into how the BBMP and BDA gave permissions in the first place," the Executive Chairperson of Bengaluru-headquartered biopharmaceuticals company Biocon said.

"Moreover, we need to go beyond knee jerk quick fixes and find holistic long term solutions. For example, razing buildings will impact helpless and innocent homeowners. Why not penalise developers and BDA/BBMP and use that to create proper water canals", Mazumdar-Shaw said.

Bengaluru's city authority, BBMP, has started an anti-encroachment this week to raze the illegal structures in the city.

Two days of heavy rains last week created massive flooding in parts of Bengaluru, particularly the information technology corridor and arterial roads.

(Inputs from PTI)