JOIN USCM Bommai slams BDA for leaving out 52 acres from acquisition
In a similar manner to the denotification scam, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) omitted nearly 52 acres of land from acquisition for Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout.
The BDA had notified 245 acres for acquisition in August (preliminary notification) but dropped 52 acres from the draft final notification two months later. The missing properties are situated in Yeshwantpur, Hesaraghatta and Yelahanka hoblis in northern Bengaluru.
When the BDA sent the draft final notification with only 193 acres mentioned, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) detected the discrepancy. The agency cited existing buildings on the remaining 52 acres for eventually omitting them.
This shows that the BDA did not make a proper assessment of properties while issuing the preliminary notification or “protected” the properties from acquisition.
The BDA had previously tried to omit as much as 245 acres — situated right in the middle of the proposed housing estate — from the acquisition process. In 2008, the BDA issued a preliminary notification to acquire 3,546 acres of land. Ten years later, it issued a final notification, leaving out 245 acres.
When the Supreme Court, which has been hearing a petition regarding Karanth Layout, discovered the omission of 245 acres, it ordered the BDA to acquire the left-out land. The BDA fell in line.
In August this year, it issued a second preliminary notification for acquiring 245 acres. As part of the draft final notification, it carefully left 51 acres and 36.5 guntas out of the acquisition.
The anomalies came to light when the file — seeking approval to issue final notification only for the 193 acres of land — reached the CMO. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai took note of the deletion of 52 acres and termed it “gross negligence on the part of officers”.
In a letter to the BDA dated October 27, the chief minister ordered suspension of the land acquisition officers (LAOs) concerned.
“This is gross negligence on the part of the officers to notify their lands knowing fully well that buildings existed on these lands,” Bommai said in the file, which has been sent back to the BDA. “Action should be taken including suspension of concerned LAOs. At this stage, no land can be excluded from the final notification. Issue final notification for the entire 245 acres 16 guntas of land,” Bommai wrote. The Urban Development Department attached the CM’s remarks and told BDA to take appropriate action.
The agency took no action against the officers in the last 12 days. Instead, it offered to regularise the buildings that have come up on the 245 acres for which the preliminary notification was issued.
Reached for comment, Dr Soujanya A, Deputy Commissioner in the BDA’s Land Acquisition Department, said: “It is an internal matter.”