The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Stop collecting building plan fees, ZP urges BMRDA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 03, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Stop collecting building plan fees, ZP urges BMRDA

Special Correspondent

ZP passes a resolution saying GPs should collect fees

BMRDA move is seen as depriving GPs of revenue
ZP members say the amount not used for development

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat wants the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) to stop collecting development fees from people who apply for construction licences in villages in five taluks around Bangalore.

The zilla panchayat has passed a resolution to ask the Government to allow gram panchayats to collect licence fee instead.

The panchayat members who debated over the issue at the general meeting here on Wednesday observed that even the poor people who have got Asharya houses were required to pay Rs. 25,000 towards the development charges.

H.P. Cheluvaraju, member from Nelamangala, said the BMRDA had opened its offices everywhere in the district and had been collecting fees from the people who sought licence to build houses. The BMRDA had not been using the fees for development activities, he alleged.

Another member Dayananda Swamy said the BMRDA had been given powers to issue licences to layouts in the taluks, but not even one area had been developed so far and neither were the gram panchayats getting their share of the money for development. This was draining the gram panchayats of their income, he added.

Munay Gowda, Lakshminarayana and V. Narayanaswamy wanted the BMRDA not to meddle with the finances of the gram panchayats.

The meeting witnessed noisy scenes over the e-governance of the gram panchayats in Bangalore Rural district.

The members alleged that the computers and the personnel appointed to operate them were not put to full use.

Taking stock of the computers and its operators in various taluks, zilla panchayat president C. Muniyappa directed the executive officers of all four taluks to monitor the full utilisation of the computers provided to each taluk.

He directed them to ensure all the computer operators gave their full time for discharging their commitment to promote e-governance in the rural areas.

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