The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : When that roof overhead moves further away

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 27, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

When that roof overhead moves further away

Swathi Shivanand

With land prices reaching vertiginous heights, what happens to the average person’s dream of owning a house?

BDA’s failure has left many to the mercy of the land developers
Government has never allocated funds for housing for urban poor

Unfulfilled: With the BDA not able to fulfil the demands for house sites in Bangalore, the dreams of several people to own a piece of land in Bangalore are shattered. A view of the BDA’s Banashankari 6th Stage.

BANGALORE: When the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) announced formation of 20,000 sites in Arkavathy Layout, more than 2.5 lakh people applied, hoping to make the cut — a reflection of the collective yearning to own a piece of precious land in Bangalore.

Even if the project, mired in legal problems comes through, it goes nowhere in mitigating the need for a housing site for thousands of people from middle and lower income groups. For them, owning and living in their dream houses remains a distant reality.

What ails the housing sector in this once-sleepy town that has seen migrants pouring in, especially from the 1970s onwards? Bangalore turned Boomtown in the 1980 and turned into an IT hub in the next decade. The city is now bursting at the seams and there is an ever-widening gap between the demand and supply for housing sites.

Dreams unfulfilled

The failure of the BDA and housing cooperative societies to cater to the dreams of the urban middle class during the last two decades has left many to the mercy of the land developers. It has also led to the mushrooming of illegal revenue layouts that have no infrastructure to speak of.

If the BDA allotted nearly 70,000 sites between the years 1976 and 1990, 137 cooperative societies distributed over 1.1 lakh sites during the same period.

However, the 1990s witnessed a slump in the activities of BDA as well as these societies when the city grew exponentially, fuelled by the IT boom.

In the years between 1990 and 2000, the BDA allotted only 6,327 sites. In fact, in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1997, the authority did not allot any sites.

It was only between 2000 and 2003 that the BDA allotted nearly 40,000 sites.

Recently, after its attempts to form the Arkavathy layout was abruptly halted, the BDA has not taken up any other housing projects.

Land and the law

Trouble for the housing sector started when the process of land acquisition became increasingly bogged down by legal quagmires.

Rising land prices meant that those whose lands were being acquired demanded more and invariably went to court, thereby increasing the costs and uncertainty of acquisition.

Hurdles in land acquisition have been the main stumbling block for the BDA, says a senior official in the authority.

“Once the BDA notifies the land for acquisition, owners go to the court, leading to years of delay. The delay leads to cost overruns, making it financially difficult for the BDA to acquire land,” he says. Besides, the BDA does not get budgetary support from the State Government and has to raise funds for land acquisition and basic amenities through the sites it sells.

Co-operative sector

Explaining the decline of the cooperative movement, Gopal Krishna Gowda, a former registrar of co-operative societies, says: “Problems in land acquisition meant that the government backed out from this process as courts started to make it also party to the dispute. Also, if for example 1,000 acres were earmarked for acquisition, then only about 250 acres would be acquired, leaving the societies with a huge shortfall.”

Another expert in the co-operative movement adds that when the State Land Reforms Act was amended in the early 1980s and housing co-operatives forbidden from purchasing land, it hit the movement hard.

As many as 48 co-operatives of the 195 registered with the Department of Co-operation have been unable to form layouts as intended. The department has stopped registering co-operatives for the past five years as the existing ones have not been able to meet their objectives.

“The State Government has never allocated funds for housing for the urban poor in its budget. All projects are centrally sponsored,” says Isaac Arul Selva of Janasahayog, an organisation working for slum dwellers.

This allows the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board (KSCB) the leeway to say that projects have not taken off due to non-release of funds, he adds.

Until now, only a few hundred houses have been constructed under the projects taken up by the KSCB, that too of low quality.

Land bank

The land bank scheme, which was in force between 1989 and 1991, made it mandatory for five per cent of land to be reserved for the urban poor whenever a layout was being formed.

Not one layout formed in these years has reserved this land in the city, says Mr. Selva.

The scheme was quashed by the High Court which held the government order illegal. “If the poor were a priority, the GO could have been converted into a law,” he adds.

Hopes ahead

Keeping the hopes alive of many aspirants are the recent announcements to allot another 60,000 sites and two lakh budget houses across the city.

Whether these projects actually take off or not, the efforts, or at least the attempts, come not a day too late for the landless Bangalorean.

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