It’s a virtual treasure hunt to study the integrities of a historic land dispute or scour for nearly century-old documents as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) attempts to resolve the eight objections received for acquiring 16 acres of Palace Grounds for widening Jayamahal Road and Ballari Road. It has been more a month since the High Court’s deadline to widen Jayamahal Road lapsed.
- 1996: Government stakes claim on 485-acre Palace Grounds
- 2009: BBMP attempts to acquire 15 acres for road-widening
- 2014: Supreme Court orders the government to hand over TDR to the Wadiyars
- 2016: High Court directs the government to grant clearance to the BBMP to widen roads
- April 2017: BBMP issues notification for acquiring 64,656 sq. m through new TDR rules
- July 2017: BDA receives two objections over acquisition
- August 2017: BBMP begins process of verifying objections and starts the hunts for historic land documents and gazettes
It was in April that the BBMP formally issued notifications for acquisition of 64,656 sq. m of Palace Grounds for widening a 2.5-km stretch of Jayamahal Road and a nearly 2-km stretch of Ballari Road. By July, Bangalore Development Authority called for objections and the file went back to the BBMP for verification of the objections received.
The two objections were from private parties, which claimed that the erstwhile Mysore royal family had transferred 45 acres of the more than 400-acre property to them in the 1970s. With the Supreme Court still looking into the ownership issue of the property, based on a State government claim to the land, officials said it was immensely difficult to verify these objections.
The land is being acquired under the new Transfer Development Rights (TDR) rules, where six members of the erstwhile royal family and one hotel group will get twice the value of the land as TDR certificates. Officials said they had planned to start the process of widening just before the September 23 deadline, and then seek time with the court.
However, the complications in the acquisition process have stalled this.
“As the Supreme Court is already looking into it, we are mulling over splitting the land acquisition into two phases — so that we can acquire areas that are uncontested along Ballari Road and start the widening work. The contested land along Jayamahal Road can be acquired at a later stage,” said a senior officer.
1921 gazette notification
Meanwhile, the BDA had itself put forth six objections, many of them bureaucratic. However, one of the objections was for the verification of pending taxes and dues.
“We have to find a 1921 Mysore gazette notification stating that the family of the Maharaja was exempted from paying taxes. Otherwise, it would be nearly impossible to find tax dues over the decades,” said the officer. Other objections raised by the BDA include lack of khatas for the land to be acquired.
When contacted, Vasanthi A., Joint Commissioner of the Land Acquisition Department, said, “The process of verifying all the objections and documents is gathering pace and we hope to finish it soon.”