Brazen breach of law by BDA to allot sites

 At a time when thousands of people are dreaming of owning a Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) site, the latter seems to be busy making illegal allotments of its prime land.

In one more such allotment, the BDA gave away four acres and 13 guntas in the name of ‘alternative sites’ by violating its own Act (BDA Act), the advice by an additional advocate general and the Apex Court order. It doesn’t stop here.

The BDA, after the allotment of lands in favour of an individual, also executed exchange sale deeds to facilitate lands as sought by the beneficiary. The person who has been allotted the prime lands is G Nagaraj, who claimed to be the General Power of Attorney (GPA) holder for 43 site losers in Banaswadi.

The case originated from survey number 73 in Banaswadi in KR Puram taluk in East Bengaluru. The original owner Eranna had executed a GPA in favour of three persons to develop a residential layout in 1984. A total of 43 sites were created and sold on this land. Later, the site owners constructed houses. When the BDA issued a notification for creating HRBR Layout in 1977, survey number 73 was not included.

However, a subsequent notification issued in 1984 included this land and in 2009, the houses were demolished. The house owners moved the High Court challenging the demolition drive and the court directed the BDA to consider the site losers’ requisition.

The BDA did not respond to the application filed by the site owners. Meanwhile, Nagaraj filed a different application along with GPAs from all the 43 site owners seeking alternative land. BDA sought a legal opinion and on January 24, 2013, Additional Advocate General K M Nataraj opined that a GPA holder cannot be allotted alternative land. The legal opinion stated, “GPA is only a document of convenience and not a document of conveyance. Hence, no land can be allotted in his (Nagaraj’s) name.”

Despite this, the BDA first proposed to allot land to Nagaraj in Kempe Gowda Layout, in 2013. However, on the request by Nagaraj, the BDA agreed to allot developed land in Arkavathy Layout and executed a sale deed in July 2013. The lands (four acres and 13 guntas) were given at Byrathi Khane on Hennur Main Road and Thanisandra. This is not all. On the request of Nagaraj that he wanted lands with roads on four sides, four exchange deeds were executed for the entire extent of lands in January and September 2014. These lands are in Rachenahalli, Thanisandra and K Narayanapura. After all this, Nagaraj has sold the lands to different people in subsequent transactions.

BDA Commissioner T Sham Bhat was unavailable for comments. Several calls made to his mobile number went unanswered. The commissioner also didn’t respond to text and Whatsapp messages.