BANGALORE: The State Government has notified the rules for regularising unauthorised constructions by levying compounding fees. But the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which has to implement the rules and regularise the deviated portions, has many hurdles in its way.

Who will certify the violations? If it is an architect, will the BBMP have a panel of registered architects? Or, if any private architect will be authorised to certify, how will the BBMP verify the certification? How to identify the buildings that have deviated more than the prescribed 50 per cent (residential) and 25 per cent (commercial)? All these and many more issues need to be tackled before the BBMP starts the process of implementing the rules.

Highly placed sources in the BBMP told The Hindu that the civic body may be forced to implement the rules without sorting out these issues because the State Government is pressuring the BBMP to start the process immediately.

The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Department recently notified the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act for bringing in the regularisation scheme. This will enable the BBMP to regularise residential buildings with violations up to 50 per cent and commercial buildings with violations up to 25 per cent. According to the rules, the compounding fee (penalty) ranges from Rs. 100 per square metre to Rs. 600 per square metre depending on the size of the area and of the plot or building.

The only relief for BBMP, which is working out modalities to implement the rules, is that this scheme does not apply to buildings on encroached government land, valleys, drains, tank beds, lands that have high tension electrical lines, buildings in dispute, forest land, buildings coming in the alignment of proposed road or rail network and buildings that have come up on lands which are not designated for the particular land use, the sources said.

A top official involved in the process of implementing the rules said that all buildings on Government land in BBMP limits would be demolished. "Action will be initiated against the officials who have issued khatas for such buildings," he said.

Screening committee

Brushing aside all apprehensions, the official said that zonal screening committees would be set up to screen the applications for regularisation. Headed by the zonal joint commissioners, these committees will have a representative from the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Directorate of Town Planning. The jurisdictional engineers would verify the certifications of deviations, he said.

With the rules notified on May 18, citizens now have a month's time to file objections. Then the final notification would be issued and people would be allowed to apply for regularisation within 90 days, the official added.

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