Amend bylaws, make them realistic

To date, no officer or engineer has been prosecuted

An ongoing survey by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has revealed that over 85 per cent of buildings constructed in the state’s capital between January 2020 and June 2021 have violated building bylaws. While the obvious culprits are the real estate lobby, corrupt BBMP officers and politicians, it should also be noted that the bylaws themselves are impractical and technically unfeasible due to which it is almost impossible to undertake any construction with total compliance. The infirmities in the law are perhaps deliberate and the BBMP appears in no hurry to plug them, for this enables bureaucrats to line their pockets by harassing ordinary people, especially those constructing individual houses. Most of the big fish, of course, get away with bigger violations and bigger payoffs, as they are a law unto themselves. In a way, the government too is to blame as the promise of regularising illegal constructions through the Akrama-Sakrama scheme, which is now pending before the Supreme Court, actually spurred many big builders to flout laws with impunity. Though the scheme was to apply to structures existing before October 2013, there seems to be some unwritten understanding that buildings post this date too would be regularised, which explains why major violations including the construction of additional floors over and above the sanctioned plan are common.

Also read: 85 per cent of new buildings violated bylaws: BBMP survey

In most cases, it is the end-buyer who gets penalised, not the builder who sold the property to him nor the BBMP officer who ignored the violation or the politicians who facilitated this illegality. Perhaps, to date, not even a single corporation officer or engineer has been prosecuted for permitting illegal constructions within their jurisdiction. In Bengaluru South and West zones, for instance, the survey found that every single building has violated bylaws. However, an equally bigger problem is that of new layouts which follow no norms as they violate all rules relating to road width, drainage and other civic amenities like parks. Here too, while the municipal officers and the developers go scot-free, people who unwittingly buy such properties are at the receiving end as they either constantly face the threat of demolition or have to pay huge penalties towards regularisation.

The government should immediately amend the bylaws to ensure that they are realistic and are not used to harass genuine home builders, while at the same time, identify and prosecute all officers, past and present, who are responsible for the mess that Bengaluru is facing. No amount of surveys and empty threats will work unless the government first breaks the nexus between builders, BBMP officers and politicians. What is lacking is the will.

Check out DH's latest videos: