BENGALURU: Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) on Saturday warned citizens against scams designed to target beneficiaries of civic amenity (CA) sites leased out by it.
“Many gangs are misusing the name of BDA and illegally collecting money from organisations/trusts which have been allotted CA sites a across the city. These fraudsters tell representatives of organisations that the land is being used for commercial purpose in contravention of the rules and that allotment would be cancelled if they failed to pay bribe,” a BDA official said.
A CA site is an area that has been earmarked for development of facilities for public use (such as running a hospital or home for the disabled or educational institution or for religious and charitable reasons) in a private or BDA layout. According to BDA’s CA Sites Rules of 1989, 10 per cent of land in every layout has to be reserved for civic amenities and these sites are allotted on a lease basis to different organisations and trusts. Nearly 1,500 CA sites are leased to different institutions for a 30-year period.
But with the demand for land going up in Bengaluru, many beneficiaries have started using the sites for commercial purposes. “These scamsters are targeting such site owners and extorting money from them,” BDA officials said.
A BDA release read: “Some miscreants are sending letters forging signature of officials and using fake seals in the name of BDA to organisations and institutions allotted civic amenity sites on lease basis. They state complaints have been received from the general public that the allotted CA sites are being used for other purposes and that the allotment will be cancelled.”
The issue came to the fore when a fake letter, which was not received by a site owner, came to the BDA head office. On verifying, it was found that the authority had not sent any such notice. Preliminary investigation revealed the gangs first send notice and the next day, a person approaches the CA site beneficiary offering help in resolving the matter. Once the gang members collect the money, they send another fake letter stating the lease will continue.
In the same way, some miscreants are also extorting money under the Akrama-Sakrama scheme. Posing as BDA officials, they say the building will be demolished as construction norms have been violated. Gullible citizens end up paying huge bribes to save their buildings. In both types of scams, the gang members reportedly collected anywhere between Rs 50,000 to Rs 7 lakh as bribe from site owners, depending on the magnitude of violations.
BDA’s vigilance department has registered a case and probe is on. “This can’t happen without an insider’s involvement. As of now, we have found that a few middlemen or brokers are involved and suspect a BDA official provided information about the violations.”