Bengaluru: Wondering why the civic agency of India’s ‘Silicon City’ is unable to develop software to handle grievances and complaints of the public, the Karnataka High Court on Monday asked the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner to come out with a software to deal with illegal constructions.
Justice Raghvendra S. Chauhan also said that officials as well as the citizens should have access to the application.
BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad, who was present in court, assured that the Palike would make all efforts to put in place an online system to handle complaints related to illegal constructions at the earliest.
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He added that an online system for various issues related to khatas, including transfer, bifurcation, amalgamation, etc is under development and would be in place in around four months. A separate online application is being developed for building plan approvals.
In a response to court’s query on action initiated against non-performing officials, the Commissioner admitted to several instances of dereliction of duty but expressed his inability to act against the culprits due to lack of punitive powers under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act.
However, the court told him that actions could be initiated against such officers under general laws if such power is not made available under the KMC Act.
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The court was hearing a petition related to non consideration of representation from a petitioner for grant of partial occupancy certificate for an apartment block despite depositing the due amount to the BBMP.
During an earlier hearing, the court had observed that there are several petitions about non-consideration of representations either to take an action against illegal construction or for seeking commencement certificate or occupancy certificate.