The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is busy making preparations to slap notices on 1,090 land encroachers who are sitting pretty on two prime residential layouts – HSR Layout and Pillanna Garden in Kadugondanahalli.
These two places are part of the 64 BDA-developed layouts where the authority conducted an audit over the last two years as part of its effort to identify both the extent of land owned by the government agency as well as recover encroachments.
Officials said they found 560 and another 530 properties encroached upon in HSR Layout and Pillanna Garden, respectively. The Land Audit Committee of the BDA, however, is yet to decide on the fee to be charged for regularising the properties.
Sources said the matter is being discussed at the chief ministerial level. Officials said the encroachers can regularise their construction by paying penalties under section 38(D) of the BDA Act, 1976, popularly called as Akrama-Sakrama scheme.
The BDA, which is currently creating an online platform to receive applications from land encroachers, is likely to issue notices in a week’s time. “We have more or less identified land encroachments in all our layouts. While the purpose of land audit was meant for identifying the extent of properties owned by the BDA, it has now helped us to either recover encroachments or sell them by penalising the encroachers,” Dr HR Mahadev, BDA Commissioner said.
While the government has already taken a decision to charge 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 40 per cent of the guidance value for revenue sites measuring 20×30 sq ft, 30×40 sq ft and 40×60 sq ft, respectively, a regularisation fee has not been fixed for BDA encroached properties.
Officials estimate the 64 layouts are spread across over 38,390 acres of land. Other than HSR Layout and Pillanna Garden, the BDA is learnt to have reported encroachment of over 6,000 acres in all the 64 BDA-owned layouts but the officials have not disclosed the full details. The authority took the help of an external agency as well as the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Application Centre (KSRSAC) to conduct the land audit.
Sai Dutta, RTI activist said he is happy that the BDA has decided to start the regularisation process. “It’s not that the engineers in BDA did not know about the encroachments. The zonal engineers kept mum and let it happen. What we are seeing is the complete failure of the BDA to act over the years,” he said and added that the authority started acting only after a case was filed in the Lokayukta.
Kavitha Reddy, a citizen activist from HSR Layout said none of the encroachers should be spared from the exercise. “The BDA had made similar announcements even in the past but the elected representatives ensured the project does not take off. The BDA’s plan to sell civic amenities (CA) sites at the rate of guidance value too appears to be a bad move as no money can replace the value of the land,” she said.
