Revenue from malls under scanner

The BJP corporator from Yediyur ward N R Ramesh blamed the BBMP revenue department of hiding information about the number of malls and the multiplexes in the City.

He said there are at least 107 malls and multiplexes in the City and of them at least six find place in the ten big shopping malls in the country. The total built-up area of the shopping malls in the City is approximately 14 crore square feet. These malls in prime areas of the City can generate revenue of Rs 140 crore.

However, the Palike records show that there are only 43 malls in the City.

Rules violated

Participating in the discussion, Opposition Leader M K Gunashekar said the Town Planning department is violating rules by allowing malls to come up in the core areas of the City where the traffic problem is more.

The Town Planning department threw to wind the Section 296 of the KMC Act, which mandates for seeking public opinion by way of calling for objections.

He said the Commissioner should have constituted a committee to look into the permissions given to all the mega commercial buildings.

In reply, the BBMP Commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda said a committee has been constituted, which is headed by Additional Commissioner Manoj Kumar Meena to look into the revenue collection from major residential, commercial buildings and tech parks.