Bengaluru administration may face contempt of court case for building ‘Indira Canteen’ in playground

The Bengaluru administration made a lot of noise last year when it went ahead with its much-hyped public eatery, “Indira Canteen”. But little did the public know that these canteens, which serve food at subsidised rates, are coming up at the cost of parks, playgrounds, lakes, stormwater drains and buffer zones.

Time and again these things were highlighted but the one canteen that has come up next to the head office of municipal administration (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) commissioner Manjunath Prasad will leave everyone in shock.

The canteen has been constructed in Sampangi Ramanagar ward in Banappa Park. The playground that was gifted to the city corporation by freedom fighter Banappa.

BBMP had given an undertaking before High Court that it will not violate Karnataka Parks, Play-Fields, and Open Spaces (Prevention and Regulation) Act 1985. But to put up such canteens, it has violated rules and hence attracts contempt of court case now.

Vinayaka School authorities, who objected to the canteen coming up in the playground and in front the school said, “After several requests from us, the authorities budged to shift the canteen to a corner of the ground, or else they would have put the structure in front of the school gate itself.”