Wary of the growing opposition to construction in Cubbon Park, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is treading carefully. It will be writing to the Public Works Department (PWD), which is likely to take up construction of the annexe to the Karnataka High Court, to submit building plans for scrutiny.
According to Section 342 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, Union and State governments are exempted from permission or sanction by the BBMP. Until now, government departments did not submit documents seeking plan sanction.
However, BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar has interpreted the section differently and stated that while departments of the State and central government may be exempted from paying fees for plan sanctions, they must submit documents to the civic body if they propose to construct any building in the city. “In this regard, we will be writing to the PWD and asking them to submit the drawing and building plan for approval,” he said. This, he added, will help the civic body ascertain whether or not the building proposed to be constructed violates zoning regulations, BBMP's building byelaws or the Karnataka Parks, Play Fields and Open Spaces (Preservation and Regulation) Act, 1985.
The Karnataka Government Insurance Department (KGID) building, which once housed the office of the Election Commission, is likely to be razed to make way for the new building.
Town Planning officials said that as per Bengaluru Development Authority's Comprehensive Development Plan 2015, any public or semi-public building may be allowed to be constructed on the site chosen for the annexe. However, large sections of Cubbon Park have also been marked as a heritage zone.
“We do not have any data or information about the archaeologically important buildings within the park. We are trying to get information from the Department of Archaeology, and have informed the Advocate General about the same,” an official said.
Officials admitted that they were finding it difficult to get any information from their counterparts in the Department of Archaeology. “We even searched the department's website in the hope of finding some details about the heritage structures in the park. However, we couldn't find anything,” the official added.
