Sakrama turns a poll issue

akrama turns a poll issue
Thursday December 6 2007 08:53 IST

Express News Service

BANGALORE: Sakrama is fast emerging as a rallying point for all political parties as it touches every property owner in urban areas of the State.

The amendment to Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act brought by the H D Kumaraswamy government has even his coalition partners opposing it.

Former BJP minister R Ashok and Katta Subramanya Naidu have led a delegation to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), while Congress leaders have taken up the issue with the Governor.

Former minister PGR Sindhia and chairman of the Upper House B K Chandrashekar have written to the Governor to halt Sakrama.

Interestingly, last year all parties had supported the Palike’s move to regularise building deviations.

The Palike had also submitted, to the High Court during hearings on PIL, about violations in Koramangala that it would find a way to regularise deviations.

Apparently, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike used that line of argument to avoid further demolitions.

However, with almost all buildings in the city corporation area having violations, it was a tough task to fix eligibility standards for regularisation.

The government ordered that 25 per cent of deviations could be regularised in case of commercial property while that limit was 50 per cent in case of residences.

But this increased the fear among property owners than allaying it.

It meant that property owners would be inviting trouble by declaring their violations that had gone unnoticed so far.

If a property had 60 per cent deviations, upon declarations the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike would demolish 10 per cent of the building after regularising 50 per cent.

Further, the calculation of percentage too is at the mercy of Palike engineers.

To make matters worse, the government fixed regularisation fees as a percentage of the current market value of property even if the property itself is a decade old.

These confusions and fear among the people have come in handy to politicians when the State is going to the polls.

Both BJP and Congress held public protest meetings and have plans for more.

With ‘betrayal’ being the only issue in the elections, Sakrama is all set to become an issue that really touches urbanites.akrama turns a poll issue
Thursday December 6 2007 08:53 IST

Express News Service

BANGALORE: Sakrama is fast emerging as a rallying point for all political parties as it touches every property owner in urban areas of the State.

The amendment to Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act brought by the H D Kumaraswamy government has even his coalition partners opposing it.

Former BJP minister R Ashok and Katta Subramanya Naidu have led a delegation to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), while Congress leaders have taken up the issue with the Governor.

Former minister PGR Sindhia and chairman of the Upper House B K Chandrashekar have written to the Governor to halt Sakrama.

Interestingly, last year all parties had supported the Palike’s move to regularise building deviations.

The Palike had also submitted, to the High Court during hearings on PIL, about violations in Koramangala that it would find a way to regularise deviations.

Apparently, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike used that line of argument to avoid further demolitions.

However, with almost all buildings in the city corporation area having violations, it was a tough task to fix eligibility standards for regularisation.

The government ordered that 25 per cent of deviations could be regularised in case of commercial property while that limit was 50 per cent in case of residences.

But this increased the fear among property owners than allaying it.

It meant that property owners would be inviting trouble by declaring their violations that had gone unnoticed so far.

If a property had 60 per cent deviations, upon declarations the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike would demolish 10 per cent of the building after regularising 50 per cent.

Further, the calculation of percentage too is at the mercy of Palike engineers.

To make matters worse, the government fixed regularisation fees as a percentage of the current market value of property even if the property itself is a decade old.

These confusions and fear among the people have come in handy to politicians when the State is going to the polls.

Both BJP and Congress held public protest meetings and have plans for more.

With ‘betrayal’ being the only issue in the elections, Sakrama is all set to become an issue that really touches urbanites.