BDA complex tenants protest against privatisation, warn of protest

BENGALURU: Tenants of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) complexes staged a hunger strike against the government and civic body condemning the privatisation of the complexes.

There are speculations that the government is privatising six complexes, including the Koramangala BDA complex, and that they have been sold to a private company to construct a mall. The shop owners staged a hunger strike on Monday when workers came to demolish the building in Koramangala.

The tenants say they have been doing business here for 20-30 years. “We depend on the business for our livelihood. The Koramangala complex has been painted afresh. If the BDA commissioner sells it to a private company, our lives will be in tatters”, they said and warned that they will fight against the government in the coming days.

One of the tenants at the Koramangala BDA complex, Najeeb, said, “They will bring people from other states and make them owners. About 99 per cent of tenants here are Kannadigas. We will stage a protest. A resolution was passed on March 27, 2018, but has not been implemented yet. Some of them threatened us by taking Deputy CM D K Shivakumar’s name. The government building should be evicted as per the law and the tenants rehabilitated. We will fight until we get justice”.

Deepa said, “We have been working for several years and many families depend on the businesses for their livelihood”. Krishna, a typist, said, “I have been working here as a typist since 1997. If the BDA sells the building to a private company, many lives will be at stake. The BDA painted the complex, upgraded facilities and spent crores of rupees on it. What is the point of spending so much money on it? They will pass on additional financial burden to the public. It is better to change the decision”.