Amendment to BDA rules helps private trusts grab CA sites

The sale of a huge civic amenities (CA) site to a trust backed by a BJP legislator has exposed loopholes in the state government’s recent amendment to the allotment of CA Sites Rules, 1989.

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), which had leased the 26,253-square foot corner site to Holalkere MLA M Chandrappa’s trust in 2011, decided to sell it off to the same trust last year even though the allottee hasn’t built the school there. The site is located in Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout in Kengeri Satellite Town, West Bengaluru.

In July 2011, the BDA allotted the said site for a 30-year lease to Devaraj Urs Education Society for building a school and a convention hall. A year before that, the same site was allotted to the BBMP for building a Kannada-medium school.

While the BDA took back the site from the BBMP after a year as it failed to build the school, it took no action against the MLA’s trust which had failed to build the school for 10 long years. The BDA was also generous enough to sell the site to the trust for Rs 10 crore — far below the market value — without the government’s written consent in 2021-22.

DH was the first to report the dubious sale on September 15.

B M Shivakumar, RTI activist and president of Jayaprakash Narayana Vichara Vedike, said the BDA had denied the poor affordable education by selling the site to the MLA’s trust. “As per rules, the BDA cannot change the land use of an already formed layout. Once the sale deed is issued, the BDA has no control over the site,” he explained.

He also disputed the MLA’s claim of not having money to build the school. “The trust had Rs 10 crore to buy the site but no money to build the school. This shows it didn’t have the intent to build the school in the first place,” Shivakumar said.

Concerns about the misuse of CA sites are not unfounded because no allottee would pay a hefty sum to buy the land when it has the easy option of paying a small annual fee to renew the lease.

In a similar case, the Karnataka Bhovi Welfare Association bought the CA site it had leased from the BDA after the government amended the rules to give allottees the option of outright purchase, a BDA source said. The site is located off Queen’s Road.