A day after Hubballi Dharwad Urban Development Authority (HDUDA) launched a drive against illegal layouts in the twin cities, some real estate developers and a Congress leader have raised their voice against it and demanded that a permanent solution be found to check illegal layouts from coming up and to help the poor who have purchased sites in them.
As announced earlier, the Hubballi Dharwad Urban Development Authority (HDUDA) has initiated the drive against illegal layouts in the twin cities and on Tuesday, in one of the unauthorised layouts, the staff removed structures put up to mark plots and other basic infrastructure.
However, the move has not gone down well with the real estate developers and also a Congress leader from Dharwad who have sought steps to help the poor.
Speaking to presspersons in Dharwad on Wednesday, realtor Imran Kallimani sought a permanent solution to providing residential sites to the poor rather than demolishing illegal layouts. He said that in most of the cases it was the poor who would be affected as they would have already purchased plots. “Especially in this time of a crisis, HDUDA should simplify the norms for regularising layouts and help the poor,” he said. Mr. Kallimani referred to previous instances of Akrama Sakrama scheme of the State government for regularising such layouts.
After launching the drive on Tuesday, HDUDA Chairman Nagesh Kalburgi had said that as real estate developers had failed to respond to notices served on them, they had no option left but to remove structures put up in illegal layouts. In an initial survey, HDUDA identified 57 such unauthorised layouts.
Mr. Kalburgi had said that the developers were cheating the poor by selling sites in illegal layouts and the drive would continue for another week.
Meanwhile, the Hubballi Dharwad former Mayor and Congress leader Deepak Chinchore opposed the drive stating that it would only affect the poor. In a press release, he said that when the State government itself had made provisions for regularisation of houses built in unauthorised layouts, HDUDA was targeting the poor through the drive. He has urged HDUDA to immediately stop the drive.
