Arkavathy sites for allottees by Dasara: BDA

Dasara this year may end the eight-year wait for 8,813 people to get  sites in the “jinxed” Arkavathy Layout. The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is planning to hand over the sites to them by  October.

During the budget session in July, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced that the BDA will complete the formation of the Arkavathy Layout by March 2014. But now, the utility has decided to hand over the sites to them five months ahead.

BDA Commissioner T Shyam Bhatt said, “We have everything under control. We are confident of completing the formation of the layout in two months. We are planning to hand over the sites to the allottees by Dasara.”

But Arkavathy Layout Allottees’ Association President G Shivaprakash, who has seen many ups, downs and assurances over the last eight years, was cautious. He said, “We have only been receiving assurances of getting the sites that were allotted to us. We cannot take things for granted till they are handed over.”

BDA issued preliminary notification to acquire 3,750 acres around 16 villages for the formation of Arkavathy Layout in 2003. However, only 2,750 acres were finally notified in 2004. The BDA started work on forming the layout and allotted sites.

However, landowners prevented the allottees from taking possession and destroyed the partially-formed layout. They filed court cases against the acquisition. The layout was also plagued by denotification scams and successive chief ministers were accused of illegally denotifying vast chunks of land. In 2010, the Supreme Court allowed BDA to acquire the land on certain conditions. However, the landowners prevented it. Then, the state government held a series of talks with them. The landowners finally agreed to part with their land in return for 40 per cent of the developed land.