Of unregulated construction and green shield in Bangalore

Of unregulated construction and green shield in Bangalore

The Hindu

The BDA Commissioner, M.N. Vidyashankar, says the green belt has not shrunk

# Green belt around Bangalore to shrink by 248 sq km from the present 742 sq km
# Over 200 "layouts" have sprung up in green belt areas
# Ban on registration of properties on revenue or non-converted land has come late

BANGALORE: When the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, announced last week that the new Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) would see the shrinking of the green belt around Bangalore by 248 sq km from the present 742 sq km, he was announcing the virtual death of the green shield envisaged three decades ago to keep Bangalore green and clean, and free from pollution.

Yet, as the former Director of Town Planning, K.S. Rame Gowda, who is best known for creating Jayanagar as the first planned layout in Bangalore, said: "If there was no CDP, Bangalore would have been a slum, with nothing but unauthorised construction. CDP did bring about a modicum of order and planning to the growth of Bangalore."

Even if there has been a tendency to bend the rules or completely disregard them to over-exploit their property, Bangaloreans have retained some respect for order in the midst of chaos.

Redefinition

The Commissioner of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), M.N. Vidyashankar, clarifies that the green belt has not "shrunk". With new features such as zoning, identifying natural valleys for protection and several layers of information super-imposed on digital maps, the new CDP will redefine the concept of reconciling the green belt with development needs.

A town planning official said property buyers manipulated the grey area in the green belt so expertly and the loopholes in the law exploited to turn a "fait accompli" into a legally correct process. Over 200 "layouts" have sprung up in green belt areas, in this manner. Even the lawmakers have contributed to the situation by not taking timely and appropriate action or displaying the foresight and vision to plan development with prudence.

At various points, the Government has slackened the rules to open the floodgates to unregulated development. Deputy commissioners were given powers to permit homesteads to be built on agricultural land. The recent ban on registration of properties on revenue or non-converted land has come too late, as the shrinkage of green belt has shown. The idea of Kengeri and Yelahanka as satellite towns or the creation of new counter-magnets that will take the pressure off Bangalore, became an idea that never engaged the State Legislature except in passing, and the disappearance of the border between Bangalore and the seven city municipal councils added to the messy co-existence of "urban Bangalore" with village Bangalore, says the former MLC and veteran journalist, P. Ramiah.

As for the declaration to "protect" the Thippagondanahalli reservoir and the catchment area, or to keep the environs of Bannerghatta National Park as inviolable green spaces, by the time the Government got round to putting in place the law to declare the T.G. Halli area, a protected zone, and halt the rush of the industrial areas towards the core of Bannerghatta forests, and the man-animal conflict in Bannerghatta has become a one-sided battle.