Regularisation not a concern for these GPA holders

The Akrama Sakrama scheme to regularise constructions in the illegal layouts and the building plan violations might have created quite a buzz in the city, especially in the revenue layouts. But there is hardly any murmur about the scheme in Krishnappa Layout near Vasanthapura in Bengaluru South.

Ensconced between Maruthi Layout and Gopalakrishna Layout, Krishnappa Layout near Yadalam Nagar is a revenue pocket where property owners are hardly debating about the scheme. For, they know that their case is different from most of the revenue layouts.

The dwellers here own the property as General Power of Attorney (GPA) holders. This means that the sale deed has not been executed yet and the title continues to remain in the name of original property owner who gave GPA to the dwellers.

One of the residents here, Prakash M R, says he bought a small plot of 625 sq ft a year ago and the Khatha has not been transferred yet. “We have heard about the Akrama Sakrama scheme but we do not know how it is going to benefit us,” says Prakash.

At a discussion organised locally, the residents realised that they may not benefit much since they did not possess ‘B’ Khathas. These residents had ‘purchased’ the properties on GPA instead of getting absolute sale deed. Reason: There is a ban on registration of small plots formed on agriculture land that have not been diverted for residential or commercial use. Sale of land less than 6,000 sq ft in area is prohibited, to discourage unplanned urban growth in the city.

But Krishnappa Layout is not an isolated case. There are hundreds of such layouts across Bengaluru. Since the land use diversion charges, betterment charges and approval charges correspondingly increase the cost of the property by at least 10 times, the land owners prefer to form unauthorised layouts without any approvals on the agriculture land and sell them to people.

Such properties have been popular among the lower classes since they are within their reach and fulfills their dream to have their own independent house in Bengaluru, where property prices are sky-rocketing with each passing day.

Krishnappa, the developer of the layout says he cannot afford to pay high conversion charges, development charges and approval charges besides paying kickbacks to the officers. “I am content with whatever I have done. I have provided plots to the poor people at a throwaway price. I sold plots of 1,200 sq ft for Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh when the approved sites of the same size in the vicinity were sold for Rs 20 to Rs 25 lakh,” says Krishnappa.

He says there are florists, Pourakarmikas, daily wage workers, sanitation workers and petty traders in his layout. “These people are able to sustain in this cruel city where the cost of living is very high because they have their own house. Can we afford to have a city without any place for people doing menial works?” questions Krishanppa.