Arkavathy Layout allottees' hopes dashed again

The hopes of members of Arkavathy Layout Allottees’ Association were dashed by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) again on Wednesday.

BDA Commissioner T Shyam Bhat, hearing the pleas of the Association members who staged a protest against delay in registering their sites, said that allottees can get their sites registered after January 15, 2013, as the BDA has to allot sites to farmers on priority.

“Our earlier attempts to develop the layout went in vain as the farmers stalled our work. Till the farmers get their 40 per cent share of land, the BDA will not be able to register land for allottees,” he said.

As farmers have demanded that they be allotted sites on their land, other allottees whose sites have not been registered will have to be given sites elsewhere, he added.
To hasten the process of allocation of sites to farmers, Shyam Bhat urged his officials to set up camps so that they can get their land registered from October 16.   

When camps were set up earlier to ensure that the farmers register their land, it did not elicit good response. But now they are blaming us for making them run from pillar to post, said a BDA official.

The BDA has so far registered 180 sites in the names  of  farmers. There are 3,400 more sites to be registered.

Expressing displeasure at the way the BDA is handling the issue, Arkavathy Layout Allottees’ Association president Shiva Prakash said the officials were making a ‘mockery’ of the allottees during the meeting.

“ We are dissatisfied with the Commissioner’s reply, as several such assurances were made before. We are contemplating filing a Public Interest Litigation against the BDA. Advocate Sirajin Basha has been approached to fight the PIL,” he said.

“It is my dream to construct a house on the BDA site allotted to me. I have been waiting all my life to realise the dream. But the Arkavathy Layout issue seems to have no end. I can only hope against hope to construct a house before I die, said  sixty-eight-year-old
Madhav Rao.