Hundreds of people who have been allotted sites in Arkavathi Layout have been left fuming at the alleged arbitrariness of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).
Those people who had got their sites registered in their name and had taken possession of it eight years ago were forced to run from pillar-to-post as the land where their sites stood has now been excluded from the remodified scheme of Arkavathi Layout notified in June earlier this year.
Alternate sitesEven as BDA has started executing the lease-cum-sale agreement for alternate sites to those site-losers, hundreds are yet to get their alternate sites registered.
Data not thereIronically, even BDA doesn’t have reliable data as to how many of the nearly 4,500 site allottees, who had their sites registered in their name, lost out in the remodified scheme.
Issue of noticeActivists also point out that BDA was obliged to give notice to site allottees inviting objections, before leaving out the land in the remodified scheme, according to Karnataka High Court order on June 2010. In an Order dated June 29, 2010, Karnataka High Court, in a similar case pertaining to Vyalikaval House Building Cooperative Society, said: “The principles of natural justice and Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1961, prescribe an opportunity of hearing to the interested persons more so in case the party in whose name the khata of the land when transferred after acquisition were sought to be mutated into the names of erstwhile owners after the acquisitions were held to be bad.”
T.P. Radhakrishnan, who lost his earlier registered site and has now been allotted an alternate site in Jakkur, said he was not served notice and that he was arbitrarily informed of an alternate allotment. “No reason was given for the alternate allotment.”
Official speaksHowever, BDA Commissioner T. Sham Bhat claimed that BDA had served notice indicating alternate allotment to site-losers. He said BDA was in the process of allotting alternate sites.
