The New Indian Express 23.11.2010
After a long wait, plots in sight for allottees
The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has initiated the process to lay the roads at the layout.
BDA Commissioner Barath Lal Meena said they have started laying roads in the area that is not under dispute.
“We will form the layout and hand over the possession of the sites to the allottees at the earliest,” he said.
“We will have to decide about the compensation that has to be paid to some land owners.”
He said the BDA will decide on developing the remaining stretches of the layout after the High Court gave its verdict on the issue.
The BDA had to stop work at the layout after land owners protested and destroyed all work, including storm water drains dug by the BDA.
The land owners had also prevented the allottees from taking possession of the sites that were marked by the BDA.
Moreover, cases were pending against the land acquisition and the courts had stayed the acquisition of some tracts of land that were notified for the layout.
The Supreme Court decided in favour of the BDA only in May 2010, while the preliminary notification for the layout was issued in 2003.
The BDA had shortlist 20,000 applicants from 2.5 lakh applications for allotting sites in Arkavathy Layout and had allotted sites to 8,813 applicants.
The applicants were denied possession by land owners for five years.
Based on the applications that the BDA received seeking sites in Arkavathy Layout, the state government decided to form five layouts — Nada Prabhu Kempegowda Layout, Shivram Karanth Layout, KC Reddy Layout, Kengal Hanumanthaiah Layout and N Nijalingappa Layout — around the city to allot 1.5 lakh sites to the people in 2007.
The BDA has issued final notification for Kempegowda Layout and is making plans to develop the layout.
The BDA has also issued preliminary notification for Shivramkaranth Layout. The land acquisition process for the remaining three layouts is yet to be initiated due to the overlapping of some survey numbers that were marked for the layout with the land that was allotted for various projects in those areas.
