Prime land scam right under BDA’s nose!

Prime land scam right under BDA’s nose!
The Times of India

Bangalore: A scam right under BDA’s nose and it is looking the other way as it involves big names. While only 37 allottees are allowed to go ahead with construction by the court, building works are going on in full steam all over the place at Bank Colony in Banashankari.
Compounds are being built all along the vast stretch of land and houses have been springing up overnight. One acre here is about Rs 5 crore.
These are the constructions being put up by the site allottees of Vishwabharati Housing Society, as per the
high court order. But in reality, the land in question belongs to BDA.
The history of the case: 79 acres of land in Hosakerehalli village was acquired by the BDA two decades ago to form a layout. Five years after it was acquired, the Vishwabharathi Housing Society claimed ownership over the property and moved the court. So much so, the society has gone on record that a hefty bribe was paid to politicians and BDA officials to show them favours.
The society, during the tenure of the then BDA chairman L R Shivarame Gowda, brought pressure on BDA and got a Board resolution passed stating that the land has been allotted to the society through bulk allotment.
Taking advantage of this resolution, the society has formed 790 sites of various dimensions and has done the allotments.
However, when Jayakar Jerome took over as BDA commissioner in 1999, he noticed the blunder and wrote to the government asking it to cancel the resolution terming it as “illegal.’’ The resolution was cancelled and government declared that the property belonged to BDA.
“Such a resolution should not have been passed by BDA in the first place as it is contrary to the BDA Act. There are a lot of procedures involved in bulk allotment and BDA could not have given it to the housing society. I wrote to the government to cancel the resolution and subsequently it was done,’’ Jerome explained.
In the case of Vishwabharathi Housing Society, the court ordered that the 37 applicants can go ahead with construction and that nobody “should interfere for 8 weeks.’’
BDA commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda told TOI: “We are aware of the constructions but cannot interfere as per the court’s orders. We will move the high court division Bench on appeal.’’
He said the land belonged to BDA and all the constructions would be demolished after eight weeks.




BRIBE ON RECORD
Vishwabharathi Housing Society had passed a resolution in its general body meeting that a bribe of Rs 4.5 crore was paid to BDA officials and politicians for the allotment of land during the tenure of Shivarame Gowda as the chairman.
The resolution, passed in September 2001, stated that bribe was paid to get out-of-court settlement of the dispute over bulk allotment and to help the society to form the layout; Rs 20 per sqft was paid as bribe for Girinagar fourth stage housing project which amounted to Rs 4.5 crore.