No disabled quota in site allotment, BDA tells HC

The Bangalore Development Authority on Monday informed the High Court that it cannot grant sites at concessional rates to the disabled.

BDA advocate KN Putte Gowda submitted to the court that it is a policy decision that sites cannot be granted at concessional rates as the land to form the sites have been purchased by private parties.  The development authority, however, has reserved 1% of sites for the disabled.

Karnataka Rajya Vikalachethanara Rakshana Samithi has filed a PIL seeking directions to the BDA to set aside the notification issued on October 14, 2015, inviting applications for the allotment of 5,000 residential sites at Kempegowda Layout in Bengaluru. The petitioner’s counsel Jayna Kothari argued that persons belonging to SC/ST category are getting sites at concessional rates.  The BDA advocate said that the authority is not allotting any sites at concessional prices to any category of persons.

The petitioner contended that the notification does not provide 3% reservation in allotment of sites to persons with disabilities. They also said that there was no mention of 50% concessional rate as per Section 43 of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights & Full Participation) Act, 1995. The Disabilities Rules, 2006, also refers to concession, the petitioner contended.

 The petitioner’s counsel said that government has not filed its statement of objections in the matter. The bench directed the state government to file objections in four weeks and adjourned the hearing.