BMP and BDA bide their time as SC gets tough on Delhi

BMP and BDA bide their time as SC gets tough on Delhi
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Civic officials are looking the other way as residential spaces are increasingly being turned into commercial complexes.

It took a Supreme Court order to get the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to crack the whip against land use violations in the national capital. It seems even the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) are waiting for a court order to wake them up to the alarming increase of commercial use of residential property.

In fact the apex court did not allow the MCD to waste time in surveys and studies as it held that land use violations are an indisputable reality.

After examining the legal powers of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the MCD, the SC held that the MCD commissioner had enough powers to issue a blanket notice and go ahead and seal the misuser’s premises.

However, in case of Bangalore, there seem to be many complexities. Under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (KTCP) Act, BDA is the local planning authority, which evolves the zoning rules. But the BMP has been delegated the plan sanction and regulatory powers in the 100 wards under its jurisdiction.

Interestingly even in the BMP area if a residential property is to be changed to commercial use, it is the BDA that has to approve it while the BMP issues the trade licence.

While under Section 73 of KTCP Act the BDA can initiate criminal proceedings against the violator, it cannot act in the BMP area. And the BMP’s building bylaw does not prescribe sealing of the premises to prevent illegal commercial use.

In effect it means that the violations occur in connivance with the BMP where it issues trade licenses and the BDA is reduced to a mute spectator.

As a consequence of the confusion, neither the BMP nor the BDA has acted on land use violations so far and the commercial activity goes on unregulated.

However, BMP commissioner K Jothiramalingam said that he would initiate action. “We will survey trade licenses issued on residential property and by April end seal at least five chowltries being run without any approval,” he said.

On the other hand the BDA is faced with a serious manpower problem. The agency that plans for 1,306 square kilometers has just two assistant directors of town planning who act as depty directors while it has four divisional officers for engineering.

The IT industry is another grey area. IT firms, who comprise about 60 per cent of commercial activity in the city, do not need any trade licence from the BMP and most businesses operate from rented houses.