Buildings illegal but avoid axe

Buildings illegal but avoid axe

September 27th, 2009
By Our Correspondent



Bengaluru
Sept. 26: More than 650 buildings worth a whopping Rs 3,000 crores listed for demolition for violation of various laws still stand in the city; With more than a little help from within officialdom.
While 350 buildings escaped the axe as they conformed, over 650 were stopped from proceeding as they did not have plan sanction, were on encroached land or had deviation of over 1,000 per cent.
Officials within BBMP have told Deccan Chronicle that the buildings listed as illegal structures were slapped with stay orders. Posters, listing the violation of building by-laws were pasted on the walls of the structures slated for demolition, and the owners stopped from going ahead. The stringent measures were imposed by the former BBMP commissioner 2007-09 with a vigilance cell tracking illegal constructions.
But senior government officials now say the vigilance cell is defunct and construction allowed to resume. BBMP commissioner Bharat Lal Meena dismissed these cases as “baseless allegations.” He said: “The Technical Vigilance Cell under the Commissioner is very much there and doing its job. The BBMP will not be soft on violators or encroachers for that matter and if anyone is saying that illegal constructions are being allowed to be completed then it’s a sheer rumour and a white lie.”