Arkavathy layout formation hit again

Arkavathy layout formation hit again
Deccan Herald

The Bangalore Development Authority’s ambitious Arkavathy layout project ran into rough weather again on Wednesday with the Karnataka High Court quashing the endorsement given by the Authority rejecting the plea of several land owners to denotify their land.

The Bangalore Development Authority’s ambitious Arkavathy layout project ran into rough weather again on Wednesday with the Karnataka High Court quashing the endorsement given by the Authority rejecting the plea of several land owners to denotify their land.

Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar passed the order while disposing of as many as 93 petitions filed by several land owners, who had filed their objections before the Authority following a direction given by a division bench of the High Court in November 2005.

The division bench, while upholding the acquisition of a major portion of the land, had asked owners of land (measuring about 700 acres), who had alleged that the BDA had denotified some lands similar to the nature of land owned by them, to file their objection before the Authority in this regard. The division bench had also asked the BDA to reconsider their objections and pass fresh orders.

Following this, the BDA had reconsidered the claims of owners of land (measuring about 700 acres) and recently rejected plea of several of them to denotify the land and issued endorsements in this regard.

While disposing of these petitions, Justice Shantanagoudar held that the records of the Land Acquisition Officer does not disclose that spot inspections were conducted to verify the nature of lands before rejecting the claim of the land owners.

While directing the BDA to redo the process after conducting proper spot inspection to verify the nature of land, Justice Shantanagoudar set a deadline of six months to complete this process. With this order, work on the formation of the layout in certain areas, where the lands in dispute are situated, will be delayed as the BDA has to rehear the objections from the land owners after inspecting such properties.