For the third time after assuming charge as Bengaluru Development minister, G Parameshwara ordered BBMP officials to cancel trade licence of illegal commercial establishments functioning in residential areas.
At a review meeting with various civic agency officials, including the BBMP, BDA, BWSSB and BESCOM on Tuesday at Vidhana Soudha, the minister has directed the officials to begin work immediately.
In fact, on the last two occasions, in September and October, the minister directed officials to cancel the trade licences. Though the civic body began the drive in September for a brief period, many shops that were shut were back in business within a few hours.
Parameshwara took the BWSSB and BESCOM officials to task for providing water and electricity to such establishments which are functioning in residential areas.
“All illegal commercial establishments including bars, restaurants and pubs will have to be shut within a few days,” Parameshwara told the officials.
On Monday, the minister met members of ‘i Change Indiranagar’, a federation of resident welfare associations in CV Raman Nagar constituency who have been fighting against issues related to commercialisation in residential areas.
Reacting to this, Swarna Venkataraman, a resident, said, “It is true that there have been multiple assurances by the bureaucrats and even a public notification was issued in this regard. However, we continue to be optimistic and believe that the words will convert into action.”
Parameshwara also emphasised that the civic body should remove encroachments on footpaths across the city. “We do not even have proper data of the length of the footpath that is encroached by street vendors in the city. I have directed the officials to conduct a survey and evict them soon,” Parameshwara said.
The minister has directed officials from the social welfare department to help the civic body officials in identifying beggars near traffic signals and move them to shelter homes across.
The minister also directed the BBMP officials to continue the drive against unauthorised optical fibre cables (OFCs), which was temporarily stopped by the BBMP. He said that 8,000 km length of unauthorised cables have been removed until now.