City does a Delhi

City does a Delhi
Sealing Drive Begins in Sadashivnagar n 11 Properties Shut
The Times of India

Bangalore: Amid the high-voltage furore in New Delhi over sealings, Bangalore has silently gone on its own sealing drive, the first in the city. Eleven properties in the upmarket Sadashivnagar have been sealed for blatant violation of land use. And this, warn officials, is just the beginning.
In an operation that began on Saturday, officials of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) have sealed 11 properties. Unlike the recent demolitions of unauthorised structures at Koramangala, the problem here is of offices operating out of houses. At best known for large colonial bungalows, parks and water bodies, Sadashivnagar now boasts of the ultimate commercial triumph — IT companies and firms functioning from houses and villas turning into offices.
Explains BMP joint commissioner (enforcement) Jayaram: “What’s different is that this area does not have as many by-law violations as in other areas. But what has happened is owners and builders have obtained building plan sanctions for residences, constructed it like a residence too but are using it for commercial purposes. These are huge sites — 60x40, 80x00 feet. No house has been touched, only those operating offices out of the houses.’’
Over the last 48 hours, Sadashivnagar has seen sturdy locks and bright-red wax. The entire process was galvanised when the Sadashivnagar Residents’ Welfare Association filed a PIL in the high court and sought intervention by the municipal authorities in checking the menace. The PIL was filed in January 2006 and is seeing “corrective’’ action now.
The sealing drive was undertaken by the BMP in conjunction with Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force and an army of some 50 officials and engineers. They have sealed a travel office, a clinic, two provisional stores, a software firm on Bellary Road, stores that have come up in the cellar of a residence, a chartered accountancy office.
Did they face resistance? Sample this: On Tuesday even as an official of the engineering department went to the chartered accountant’s office to seal the office, the tenant threatened him by dropping names of ministers, calling up an MLA and asking the official to speak to him. The other obvious resistance has been in the form of obtaining stay orders.
Compared with the magnitude of the problem at Delhi, the numbers appear small — only because there has been no formal questioning of the civic ill, like at Koramangala or now Sadashivnagar. Across New Delhi, 5.4 lakh shops are facing closure, some 30,000 people have filed affidavits and the livelihood of 27 lakh persons are under a cloud.
Delhi bandh
turns violent
New Delhi: The sealing drive against unauthorised commercial establishments here will resume from Wednesday, even as vandalism pockmarked the streets as thousands of angry traders smashed vehicles, blocked roads and clashed with police during the bandh on Tuesday.
ZEAL TO SEAL
Notices issued: 90 buildings and properties Establishments sealed: 11 Stay orders obtained: 40 Corrections implemented by owners themselves: 5 New constructions under scanner Bangalore has been witnessing ‘corrective action’ by civic authorities. If it was demolitions at Koramangala, now it’s a sealing drive at Sadashivnagar. Both were spurred by residents
Bangalore: Delhi may be on the boil with thousands of traders and building owners taking to the streets against the sealing drive, but should civic authorities decide to do ‘corrective action’ across Bangalore, at least 70 per cent of the city would need to be either razed or sealed!
Referring to the violation of land use at Sadashivnagar, BMP commissioner K Jairaj explains, “Unlike Koramangala, the point here is change of land use. How do you prevent these people from using their own land in an inappropriate manner? Hence the sealing. Upcoming commercial constructions are being watched.’’
Typical violations include disobeying plan sanctions, set-back area violations, zoning regulations, plinth area irregularities, over-night conversion of a residential complex into an overt commercial complex, et al.
The dust has not settled completely at Koramangala, though. Officials say there has been a change in the advocates handling the case because the case itself has been withdrawn. But it will come up again, they say.