Karnataka cabinet sub-committee endorses Akrama-Sakrama

A cabinet sub-committee has endorsed the move to regularise buildings (Akrama-Sakrama) constructed on the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) land.

The move, which would regularise 75,000 houses built in about 5,000 acres of BDA land, would bolster the state coffers by bringing more revenue.

The irregularities took place since people who owned the land earlier sold it, though the BDA had acquired the land and paid them compensation.

Amid talks that such houses could be regularised, the government set up the sub-committee to investigate the issue.

The sub-committee that met on Tuesday under Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan’s chairmanship, discussed the issue and mulled the proposal to amend the BDA Act, 1976, as part of the regularisation.

During the meeting, attended by Housing Minister V Somanna, senior Urban Development Department and BDA officials, it was stated that the government intends to regularise all the 75,000 houses. The move involves charging the house owners a one-time guidance value.

While the law department suggested a 12-year ceiling on regularising the houses, some committee members felt the government should consider all houses built on BDA land until now. Following the decision taken in the previous meeting, an audit of all encroachments on BDA land was completed and the details were discussed on Tuesday.

The regularisation will end years of uncertainty among thousands who built houses on encroached land.

It will also stop the BDA’s fruitless efforts to reclaim the large swathes of land, as the committee decided it was better to forego the ownership in return for the fee or penalty it would receive.

Since regularisation would involve a penalty, officials have determined the amount according to the plot size. So far, the BDA has developed 64 layouts.