Sakrama may stay, but with changes

Sakrama may stay, but with changes
DH News Service, Bangalore:
Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Wednesday directed the law department and the Advocate-General to explore all possibilities to bring in some changes in the vexed Sakrama scheme and provide "relief" to a large section of people who need to regularise their illegal developments.

The Governor, who held a detailed discussion with his advisors and Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials, is, however, not inclined to seek Parliament’s intervention in this regard, nor he is willing to scrap the scheme, highly-placed sources told Deccan Herald.

Official sources said that Mr Thakur has also asked the law department and his advisors to look into the possibilities of slashing the regularisation fee under the scheme to certain categories of property owners (like for small plots not exceeding 60 sq mts), besides adopting the latest Master Plan of Bangalore (2015 plan released by BDA recently) instead of the 1995 plan, as has been stipulated in the Sakrama law.

“By adopting the latest Master Plan, a large number of properties that are located in the Green Belt zone demarcated by the 1995 Plan, can also be regularised,” the sources pointed out.

Decision likely today
The sources also said that the Governor has asked the law department to submit a report in this regard latest by Thursday noon.

In fact, Mr Thakur has convened a meeting of his advisors on Thursday, and he is likely to take a decision based on the report at this meeting.

However, the Governor has resolved to leave the demand for extending the deadline for submitting applications under the scheme (which is now December 14), to the Karnataka High Court.

The hearing on the petitions against the Sakrama scheme, is coming up before the court on December 10.

The Governor’s move has come in the wake of a High Court directive to the State government to take a decision on Sakrama in larger public interest.