Violations up to 50% may get nod

Violations up to 50% may get nod
Regularisation With Penalty Fee On Cards; Govt To Table Bill
The Times of India

Bangalore: Galvanised by the large-scale agitation against Koramangala demolitions and the high court directives, the government is all set to table the much-debated, muchawaited Bill on regularising building violations and deviations in the state.

The proposal, which has been finalised by the cabinet sub-committee, talks of regularising deviations/violations with an upper limit of 50% for residential buildings and 55% for commercial buildings along with a hefty compounding fee.

According to the contents of the Bill made available to The Times of India, the penalty will be based on three categories — violation of setbacks, violation of Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and deviations from the sanctioned plan within the permissible limits.

Different penalty slabs have been mooted for Bangalore city local planning area — within corporation limits and outside corporation limits; other city corporations in the state; areas falling under urban development authority and municipal limits. In tandem, the penalties range from Rs 100 per sq mtr to Rs 10,000 across the three types of usage from corporations to municipalities. As a corollary this depends on the area in question too. For instance, a building in Sadashivanagar in Bangalore whose owner seeks to regularise deviations, will pay something vastly different from a building on Avenue Road or something on M G Road will vary from one at West of Chord Road. The slabs have apparently been worked out depending on the demographics of the area and designed to reflect market values.

Will this then spell the death knell for demolitions of violated buildings? BMP commissioner K Jairaj acknowledges that demolition is not a single answer to the macro issue of rampant violations.

“But when there are gross violations where people build without plan sanctions or have an out-and-out commercial building in a residential area or have violations to the extent of 170%, no regularisation law can tackle it completely. This could however ensure that many buildings will come under the ambit of law.’’
Regularisation will not apply to the following violations


Violation of parking area. Violation of safety regulations imposed by Fire Force authorities. Violation of regulations with regard to declared heritage and protected monuments. Violation of high tide line prescribed in the zoning regulations (constructions near high-tension power lines as specified in the law).

The scheme will also not be applied to those buildings situated on land belonging to government and local authorities; proposed alignments to ring roads, national highways, land abutting river course, beds, canals; land reserved for park, open space, civic amenities and basements.