BDA flooded with objections for Shivram Karanth Layout

BENGALURU : Following a Supreme Court (SC) directive to go ahead with the formation of the shelved Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) issued a final notification for acquisition of the land. The notification issued on November 3 last year has already received over 500 objections from owners against the acquisition of their properties. 

The Court on August 3, 2018, directed the BDA to issue a final notification for the layout within three months. The Dr Shivaram Karnath Layout, planned in 2008, was intended to be the second largest of BDA’s 64 layouts with 18,975 sites planned in 17 villages between Doddaballapur and Hesaraghatta. 

BDA had issued a preliminary notification on December 30, 2008 to acquire 3,546 acres and 12 guntas of land in these villages but the state government had issued denotification orders between 2008 and 2010, leaving BDA with no opportunity to issue a final notification. The HC shelved the project on September 2, 2015. The BDA then approached the apex court.  

The SC also ordered that lands measuring 257 acres and 20 guntas, and 498 acres, which were excluded from land acquisition by the state government, be included.Deputy Commissioner of Land Acquisition at BDA, Anitha Lakshmi, said, “We have already issued land acquisition notifications to owners of 14 out of 17 villages and the remaining will be completed shortly. On many parcels of the land proposed for Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout, private layouts have already been formed or individual houses have been built.”

The BDA was still assessing as to what steps can be taken in such cases, she added. Owners of 124 sites in Magnolia Serenade Layout in Yelahanka New Town have been spending sleepless nights since the notification was issued, as the 9.24 acres of their land have been marked in the final notification.

Mahesh D C, secretary of Magnolia Serenade Residents Welfare Association, said, “Only after the land was left out of the preliminary notification for acquisition for the Dr Shivram Karanth Layout, did we get it approved by the BDA. Our construction plan was also approved.”Mahesh pointed out that two houses have already been built and given out to families to stay. “Six more houses are being constructed and many of us plan to construct more. How can our lands be suddenly acquired now?,” he asked. At least 20 people visit the office daily objecting this move, the Deputy Commissioner added. 

Justice K N Keshavanarayana, a former judge of the HC, has been appointed as the Inquiry Officer to fix the responsibility for politicians and BDA officials, responsible for the denotification. He said, “My inquiry will be completed in a couple of months.”