Date:12/06/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/06/12/stories/2004061215590300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

2.5 lakh apply for sites in Arkavathi Layout

By Our Special Correspondent

People standing in a queue to submit applications for sites in Arkavathi Layout at a designated centre in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE, JUNE 11. The Bangalore Development Authority got a record 2.5 lakh applications till Friday, the last day for receiving applications for allotment of sites in Arkavathi Layout. This housing layout, the largest to be developed so far by the BDA, has 20,000 sites of different dimensions. The applicants will know if they have been allotted sites probably in September.

The elections forced the BDA to suspend receipt of applications for almost a month, but the process was resumed soon after the polls. The authority had to cope with issues such as touts offering to get the applications accepted on the basis of "influence" or other considerations.

The BDA authorities repeatedly announced in the media that "influence and other considerations" will not work and allotments would be made on the basis of how long the applicants had waited to get sites.

On Friday, there were long queues at some branches of Canara Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Corporation Bank which were authorised to receive the applications.

This trend of more applications than the available sites is being witnessed over the past three years, according to the BDA sources. During 2002, the BDA invited applications for 5,000 sites in Banashankari Phase 6 and received over 33,000 applications. For Anjanapura Layout later that year, 75,897 applications were received for 10,000 sites. Last year, the latest phase of Banashankari and Visvesvaraya layouts were notified and the BDA had to process 1.13 lakh applications.

The process of scrutinising the applications and categorising them on the basis of the waiting period is expected to take three months, though the work is mostly computerised. Meanwhile, the BDA has completed the process of issuing notices to private layouts which came up earlier in the Arkavathi Layout area without being authorised.

The BDA officials said they were now in legal possession of the entire land there.