Karnataka - Bangalore   

Sakrama: Government to give reply on December 10

Bangalore: The Advocate-General B.V. Acharya will, on December 10, file the reply of the State Government before a division bench of the Karnataka High Court, headed by the Chief Justice, on the vexed Sakrama issue.

Governor Rameshwar Thakur, who chaired a meeting of the executive committee on Thursday, told presspersons that additional relief would be provided to property owners who sought regularisation of their “unauthorised sites”. The Sakrama scheme had been brought into effect following an amendment to the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act. The Commissioner of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), S. Subramanya, was also at the executive committee meeting to finalise the changes in Sakrama.

Mr. Rameshwar Thakur, however, refused to disclose the details of the submissions which will be made by the Advocate-General to the court.

The executive committee had an inconclusive and informal meeting on the same subject on Wednesday. But the Thursday meeting was described as a formal one and all the three advisers — P.P. Prabhu, S. Krishna Kumar and P.K.H. Tharakan — were present. The discussions centred upon the sufferings of the people who were forced to file their applications, along with a huge penalty, to the BBMP and other urban local bodies in other parts of the State on or before December 14.

He said that apart from Mr. Acharya, the Law Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the State Legislature would also be briefed about the meeting on the Sakrama issue before the reply to be submitted before the Bench was finalised.

Mr. Thakur and Mr. Krishna Kumar said that the committee dealt with all the aspects of the problem. After the court pronounces an order, the government will take a decision to implement it. The Advocate-General has been authorised to examine all aspects of the problem, including the legal implications to any changes that could be effected by the government.

Lack of time in finding a suitable solution to the problem, including a further amendment to the Act, is the major constraint before the government, the Governor said.

Mr. Krishna Kumar said that the court is seized of the matter and hoped that it would give relief. He said that the Act had imposed limitations on the government to take any initiative and the degree of freedom to it was very less.

Asked what the government would do, if the court gives an order that would not help the petitioners, the Governor said that the submissions which will be made by the Advocate-General to the Bench will contain more relief to the property owners, particularly the poor and the middle class. The executive committee will meet again tomorrow to continue the discussion on the measures to be taken to ease the problem, he said.

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