Building comes up in HSR Layout in brazen violation of laws

Man builds six-storey building on plot meant for four floors

The permission was for constructing a hostel with ground floor plus three upper floors on a 1,200 sqft plot in HSR Layout but the owner built a six-storey office without leaving any setback. Neighbours watched helplessly as the building began to come up with all violations — commercial building on a residential plot in a residential locality, with no setbacks and with two extra floors. The BBMP office was hardly a few hundred metres away from the building but that did not deter the builder from violating the building plan.

Persuading the building owner T Shivakumar too did not yield any result. Finally, they lodged a complaint with the BBMP. The assistant executive engineer of the HSR Layout sub division has issued a notice based on the complaint but he did not stop the construction activities. Now, the building has come up and its portions have been rented out.

R Keshava Reddy, one of the residents’ welfare association members of the area, said, “When we approached the ward engineer asking him to stop the illegality, he advised us not to make a mountain of a molehill and asked us to compromise with the owner.”

However, the residents insisted that the violations be stopped before they become a precedent for others in the area. Three months after the complaint, the assistant executive engineer wrote to Bescom to disconnect power. However, the electricity company did not heed the directions.

When contacted, Shivakumar said he was not the only one who has violated laws. “I am unable to understand why I am being targeted when there are many buildings in HSR Layout full of violations. A few neighbours began troubling me after the construction was over,” said Shivakumar.