The Hindu : Front Page : Aren’t officials responsible?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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Aren’t officials responsible?

Afshan Yasmeen

‘Over 90 per cent of buildings are constructed in violation of norms’

The KMC Act provides for action against officials
But regularisation rules are silent on the issue

BANGALORE: When R. Venkateshwaran built a three-storeyed house on a 30 ft by 40 ft site in Errappa Reddy Layout of Munikollalu village near Marathahalli last year, none of the officials from the Mahadevapura City Municipal Council (CMC), under which the village is located, stopped him from going ahead with the construction.

The jurisdictional assistant executive engineer and revenue inspector knew that Errappa Reddy Layout was an unauthorised extension. In connivance with the officials, landlords of the CMC haphazardly divided their agricultural land into sites and formed this layout throwing all norms to the wind and sold them to gullible persons.

More than 3,000 houses came up here in a period of two years. The owners, who did not even have khatas for the sites, obtained power connections from Bangalore Electricity Supply Company based on the sale deeds. Though they knew they could not get water and sanitary connections, the owners were convinced because none of the areas in the CMCs had these facilities then.

This is just one example of how unauthorised layouts have mushroomed and building bylaw violations have happened in and around the city. Though top officials from the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) admit that over 90 per cent of buildings in and around the city are built in violation of norms, they are silent when asked why these violations were allowed in the first place, and by whom.

“Though the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act provides for action against such officials, it is ridiculous that the rules adopted to regularise unauthorised developments or constructions under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act are silent on this issue, ” N.S. Mukunda, president of Citizens’ Action Forum said.

Pointing out that it is unfair to penalise only the citizens, B.T. Naganna of Lok Paritran demanded action against the erring officials first.

BBMP Commissioner S. Subramanya agreed that officials are culpable. “I totally agree that action should be initiated against such officials, and the law also provides for this. But with almost all buildings having violated the norms, it is practically not possible for the Government to take action against all the area engineers.”

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