Date:09/05/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/05/09/stories/2003050902900400.htm

Southern States - Karnataka

JD(S) threatens stir over Shivakumar's fiat to CMCs

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore May 8. K.N.Chakrapani, Working President of the Yuva Janata Dal (Secular) State unit, has said that the Chief Minister, S.M.Krishna, should withdraw the order issued by the Minister for Urban Development, D.K.Shivakumar, restraining city municipal councils from collecting betterment charges and issuing khatas to revenue site owners.

Mr. Chakrapani told presspersons here today that the order was issued apparently to serve the interests of land developers and the land mafia, who had been maintaining a low profile. The order would only help big land developers form private residential layouts and sell sites at high prices.

Mr. Chakrapani said there were nearly 30 lakh revenue sites and houses in the six city municipal councils and the Kengeri Town Municipal Council limits around Bangalore. In 1996, the H.D.Deve Gowda Government issued an order allowing these seven civic bodies to collect betterment charges and issue khatas to revenue site owners. People bought revenue sites at a time when the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) sites were beyond their reach.

Betterment charges were a major source of revenue for the civic bodies.

Besides withdrawing permission to collect betterment charges, the Urban Development Ministry had also withdrawn the 2 per cent additional stamp duty which used to be transferred to the CMCs. Each CMC netted about Rs. four crore from betterment charges and share of stamp duty and this had helped them take up road and other infrastructure development works.

Mr. Chakrapani said the Urban Development Minister, who lost to Mr. Deve Gowda in the byelections to the Lok Sabha from the Kanakapura Constituency last year, had deliberately labelled Mr. Deve Gowda as being part of the "land mafia" only to cover-up his "deals" in the sale of valuable agricultural and revenue land around Bangalore. "I have documentary evidence to show his involvement. The all important order was not even discussed at the Cabinet meeting or with the Chief Minister and other senior ministers," he said.

As per the latest order, all those seeking to form private residential layouts had to first get the revenue land converted for residential purposes. Then approval had to be obtained from the BDA. As per the BDA's rules governing private layouts, 50 per cent of the land had to be set apart as open space, 20 per cent for parks and civic amenities and residential sites formed on the remaining 30 per cent of the land. Following the Government Order, many private developers from other States had arrived in Bangalore to make quick money, he said.

Mr. Chakrapani said it was impossible for people with two or three acres of land to form private layouts since it would be uneconomical to do so. In the bargain, the "land mafia" operating in the jurisdiction of the CMCs would enter into sale agreements with the revenue and agricultural landowners and after paying a nominal advance to them would form large layouts in collusion with the Urban Development Ministry and the BDA.

The order did not state what the Government proposed to do about the revenue sites already bought by people and the houses built on many of these sites. Owners of these sites and houses would have to remain without authorised documents for their properties and consequently forego the facility of taking loans from banks.

Mr. Chakrapani said if the Chief Minister did not withdraw the "pernicious order", the JD(S) would launch an agitation and make it an election issue.