House Building Co-operative Societies (HBCS) emerged as an alternative in the city’s real estate market from the late 80s, after Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) failed to cater to the burgeoning needs of the city.
Sadly, the HBCS sector has also failed the common man as it has violated all norms of site allotment. Most of the 146 HBCS are mired in litigations.
There are innumerable cases where HBCS have allotted sites to non-members and have put the land that it was provided with by the government to real estate speculation. Vyalikaval HBCS and Shantinagar HBCS have alleged to have indirectly allotted 143 and 100 sites respectively to only one individual.
Activists allege that private layouts by HBCS made BDA redundant. State government decided to allow private layouts by HBCS in 1985 citing that BDA could not cater to the needs of the city which had a population of 29.13 lakh then. The city’s population is estimated to be close to one crore at present.
RTI activist Ganesh B. Koundinya said violating the spirit of a HBCS, most societies indulged in speculation spiralling land prices. BDA is also finding it economically unsustainable to acquire land at such exorbitant costs and allot sites at cheap rates.
A senior BDA official concurred with the view and added that compensation under the new Land Acquisition Act had nearly quadrupled the costs involved with developing a layout and has thus increased the price of a site. Exorbitant land prices also is the prime reason for litigations.
15 lakh revenue properties come up
Staff Reporter
Bengaluru: The failure of both the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the House Building Co-operative Societies (HBCS) to provide sites to the common man at affordable prices is seen as the prime force driving pockets of unplanned revenue properties in the city. There are an estimated 15 lakh revenue properties.
Most of these revenue pockets are plagued by poor infrastructure, lack of proper drainage and sanitation. Most of these properties don’t hold credible documents and are entered in the B register. These properties are likely to be regularised under the proposed Akrama Sakrama scheme.
