The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Land owners to be given 40 pc. of developed land

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Land owners to be given 40 pc. of developed land

Special Correspondent

The move is to encourage farmers to provide land for housing

20 pc. land earmarked for parks, public purposes to go to land owners for commercial ventures
State-level vigilance squad has been set up to root out corruption in ULBs

BANGALORE: The State Government has decided to bring out guidelines making it mandatory for urban local bodies (ULBs) to allot 40 per cent of the developed land to those whose lands are acquired. This is to encourage farmers and land owners to provide land for housing projects developed by ULBs.

Minister for Urban Development S. Suresh Kumar told presspersons here on Tuesday that all urban development authorities have been finding it difficult to acquire land for housing projects since farmers and land owners have been demanding higher compensation.

Further, land is unavailable for acquisition in most of the cities and towns. In several cases the acquired land has been denotified owing to protests from farmers.

For instance, the department had been offering Rs. 5 lakh for an acre in Mysore City Corporation limits. But the farmers were refusing to give their lands seeking higher compensation. Almost all ULBs were starved of funds, he said. Already the Commerce and Industries Department had formulated a policy by which farmers would be given 8,500 sq. ft. of developed land for each acre of land acquired from them.

Report

Mr. Kumar, who also holds the Law and Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, released an 18-page report on the performance of his two departments during the last seven months. The B.S. Yeddyurappa Government completed seven months in office on December 30, 2008.

The department also plans to allot 20 per cent of the land earmarked for parks and public purposes for land owners to take up commercial activities.

Nearly 35 per cent of the State’s population resides in urban areas against the national average of 24 per cent. The urban areas contribute 80 per cent of the resources to the State economy. The Government has set aside Rs. 4,574 crore for the development of urban areas in 2008-09, he said.

Vigilance squad

To root out corruption in the functioning of ULBs, including city corporations, the Minister said a State-level vigilance squad had been set up. Three teams have been formed to look into the complaints of corruption against officials and irregularities in the execution of development works in cities and towns by ULBs. Members of the squad are: C.G. Suprasanna, Joint Director (Development); N.B. Shivarudrappa, Joint Director (Finance); Arundati Chandrashekar, Assistant Director (Administration); M.R. Udayashankar, N.B. Narasimhamurthy, A.S. Rangaraju, all executive engineers of Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), Bangalore; K.L. Subramanya, section officer, Town Municipal Division, Urban Development Department; Ramaiah, section officer, BBMP, Urban Development Department; S. Chandrappa, section officer, Bangalore One division, Urban Development Department, Bangalore.

Based on the complaints, the teams will visit the spot and obtain details related to irregularities in the execution of development works and submit a report to the department Secretary, the Minister said.

He added that an expert committee, headed by former Chief Secretary A. Ravindra, has been constituted to bring out a new Urban Development Policy. The draft policy would be released for public debate by this month-end.

New status

Taking into account the population and economic activities, the Government has proposed to grant city corporation status to Shimoga-Bhadravati and Tumkur cities, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka