Panel starts survey of Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout

BENGALURU: Thanks to a recent directive from the Supreme Court, there has been some progress on the Dr K Shivaram Karanth Layout, the second-biggest layout of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), in North Bengaluru. The task of identifying legal constructions that have come up here till 2018 for the purpose of regularising them has begun. 

The apex court had on December 3 ruled out demolishing the structures that have come up in the space earmarked for the layout and set up a three-member committee, comprising former Karnataka High Court judge Justice A V Chandrashekhar as chairman with Jayakar Jerome, former BDA commissioner, and S T Ramesh, former Director General of Police, as members. The committee has been told to submit a report within six months on the legally built constructions on the layout. 

Deputy Commissioner, Land Acquisitions, BDA, P Shivaraj, told TNIE, “The committee visited five villages, including Doddabetahalli, Avalahalli and Shamarajapuram, to take stock of the situation. BDA surveyors, land acquisition officers and engineers were also present.” A source said the team plans to visit all the 17 villages that fall under the layout over the next two weeks and interact with people concerned.

The committee on Tuesday met officials from the BDA land acquisition, engineering and town planning departments, the source added. The Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre had supplied the BDA with a number of satellite images of the layout in 2018, he added. 

The BDA is also working on providing an office for the committee on the BDA campus at Kumara Park West as mandated by the Supreme Court, Shivaraj said. The state had planned to create 18,975 sites in this layout, that lies between Dodaballapur and Hessarghatta, 12 years ago but it never took off due to numerous court cases.