Shut business in a week: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike notice to shop owners

BENGALURU: If you own a shop on a road less than 40ft wide in a residential area in Bengaluru city, just shut it down. This is the warning notice issued by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike health authorities to thousands of shop owners operating out of residential localities across Bengaluru.

Shops and commercial establishments, which have been served notices, have been directed to close their businesses within a week. BBMP commissioner Tushar Giri Nath said the civic agency was only complying with the Karnataka high court orders on not allowing commercialization in residential areas. Notices are being issued to shops functioning after 2015 in residential pockets across the city.
In the notice, BBMP has cited orders of the Karnataka high court in writ petition number 3676/2008.
BBMP: Issuing notices to comply with court order
The authorities have directed the shopowners to close their establishments forthwith and report the same to their office along with a photograph showing the closure. If they fail to do so, then the authorities will take steps to close them down as per the law.
The notices said the location of their business violates Revised Master Plan 2015 and zoning-related guidelines issued by the government on March 20, 2015.
The action has left traders clueless as thousands operate in residential areas, especially in old Bengaluru with narrow roads, and entire localities are shown as residential. "This confusion would not have arisen if the planning authorities had done their job fairly. Bengaluru does not mean only HSR Layout, Indiranagar or Koramangala. It also consists of areas like Malleswaram, Kempegowda Nagar and Hanumanthanagar," a trader not willing to be identified said.
The authorities have identified shopkeepers even on old bazaar streets around DVG Road in Basavanagudi who got their licence after 2015, the year the government issued the guidelines. Around 3,000 shop owners have been served closure notices in Basavanagudi.
BBMP embarked on a notice-issuing spree following the high court observations while hearing a PIL filed by Wilson Garden Residents' Welfare Association, which had taken objection to the operation of flower-storage units in their area.
The court stated that BBMP cannot permit activity other than those permitted in Revised Master Plan 2015 in residential areas.
A BBMP official said they have been issuing notices to comply with the court order before the next date of hearing. The issue is expected to snowball into a crisis for the ruling BJP as it is headed for assembly polls this year.