The Bangalore Development Authority on Wednesday conceded that it had no land left in Arkavathy Layout to carve out sites for all the 3,728 allottees.
BDA Commissioner Rajkumar Khatri met hundreds of alottees who had gathered at the authority’s office in Bengaluru to protest the long wait for alternate sites. “I concede that we cannot solve the whole problem and allot sites to all the allottees. We don’t have so much land in the layout,” he told them, adding that the authority would make maximum utilisation of the available land to allot sites to as many people as possible. “For the remaining, we will write to the government seeking directions, which may include accommodating them in Kempegowda Layout,” he said.
To acquire more land, BDA has identified 43 acres in six villages at Arkavathy Layout and served notices to land-owners. “We have received a response from the owners of 15 acres. We will take steps to immediately acquire this land and begin carving out sites in another three weeks,” Mr. Khatri said.
Bhaskar Reddy, one of the people leading the protest, said that the allottees had lost their sites because of the denotification in July 2014. “We have been running from pillar to post for almost a decade. BDA has not only been unresponsive but also arrogant,” he said.
The protest saw tense moments as the allottees had a verbal duel with the police when they tried to barge into the BDA board room after realising that the commissioner was not in the office.
Mr. Khatri rushed to the spot and pacified the protesters. He also announced that the seniority list of all allottees eligible for alternate sites would be published in a week and that the public would be given 15 days to submit their objections.
Kempegowda Layout list
Suraj, an applicant for a site in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout, was at his wit’s end on Wednesday while trying to get a refund of the deposit he had put down with the site application. “A relative of mine is in the ICU. My name doesn’t figure in the provisional list of site allottees anyway. Why is the BDA holding back my money? Why can’t they return it?”
BDA published the provisional list of site allottees for 5000 sites in Kempegowda Layout in July 2016 but is yet to publish the final list. BJP leader S. Suresh Kumar on Tuesday had also announced that he would protest before the BDA office on November 2, demanding that the authority immediately return the deposit money of those who were not allotted sites.
BDA Commissioner Rajkumar Khatri said they are in the final stages of approving the list, which is likely to be published next week, and then would start returning the deposit to those not allotted sites.
