Sealing drive, a wake up call for other areas

Sealing drive, a wake up call for other areas
Deccan herald

BMP’s Joint Commissioner (enforcement) N Jayaram, on Thursday, noted that the sealing drive against land-use violations in Sadashivnagar should be a wake up call to property owners in others areas of the city too.

Since the initiation of the drive in Sadashivnagar, people from other prominent residential areas - Malleshwaram, Jayanagar, Indiranagar and the like have been approaching the BMP seeking for action in their area too, he said.

Mr Jayaram maintained that the buildings acted upon shall stay sealed until assured rectifying measures are taken by the owners. Two parties (a chartered accountants firm and an educational firm) whose office units were sealed on the first day (last weekend) of the drive are learnt to have got their cases vacated by the Court on Friday. “We have unlocked their premises today”, said a BMP sleuth involved in the sealing drive.


Meanwhile among the 45 buildings against which the owners have procured Court stays, after receiving the notice from the BMP, is also a residential building that houses the office of the Ministry of Law and Justice. In its petition, the Ministry had claimed that the offices of Central and State governments were permissible in residential building as per BMP bylaw.

Countering the affected residents’ argument that they have paid property tax on commercial rates, the Engineering sections of the BMP sought to explain that payment of property tax under the commercial head does not amount to a sanction of land use conversion.

Moreover, since property tax is paid through Self Assessment Scheme (SAS), not everyone would have declared the commercial activity in what is meant to be their residential premises. “We will have to verify their (residents) claims on a case by case basis” noted a senior-level engineer. As far as the building by-law violations in Koramangala goes, BMP officers noted that the survey of the 6,000 buildings is on and that notices are also being issued.