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.