Norms violation: rain hampers BMP survey

Norms violation: rain hampers BMP survey

The Hindu

Majority of 250 buildings surveyed violate either the building norms or zonal regulations

# BMP took up survey of 6,000 buildings following a High Court directive
# Teams formed to check violations inspect 188 buildings
# BMP to submit a report to the court next week

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) has so far surveyed nearly 250 buildings in Koramangala and found that a majority of them violate either the building norms or zonal regulations.

However, the survey has been hampered due to heavy rains that lashed the city in the last few days, and by the alleged uncooperative attitude of some of the residents.

The BMP had some time ago taken up a survey of the 6,000 buildings in Koramangala following a direction from the Karnataka High Court after a public interest litigation (PIL) petition highlighting the violation of building norms and illegal change in land use in Koramangala was filed.

The petitioners had listed 87 buildings, which they said, had violated norms. The BMP and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had initially inspected the area and found that most of the buildings had violated the norms.

Sources in the BMP said teams had been formed to check the violations and till this week, it had managed to inspect 188 buildings. This is in addition to the 87 buildings, the list of which had been given by the petitioners in the PIL, which were inspected earlier. During this inspection, many of the buildings were found to have violated change in the land use land use by converting residential structures to house commercial or business establishments.

They said many of the landlords had themselves come forward to voluntarily "close down" the illegal commercial structures, identified by the BMP. However, a few had refused to either close down or permit the BMP to "lock" the illegal structure or prevent it from being occupied. In some cases, crowds had gathered and prevented the BMP officials from "closing" or "locking" the illegal premises.

The officials inspecting the premises had not been able to get police protection as both the police and other BMP officials were busy in organising rain relief works. The rains in the last two weeks had thrown life out of gear and the civic authorities had to work round the clock to mitigate the sufferings of people. Incidentally, the brunt of the rain damage was in areas adjacent to Koramangala such as Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Jayanagar, J.P. Nagar and Puttenahalli.

With the flood waters receding in the city , the BMP officials have once again stepped up the inspection drive. The BMP says it has listed all the violations — building norms, change in land use or encroachment — and says it will submit a report to the court next week.