Date:02/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/06/02/stories/2006060221910300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Arkavathy Layout's status will be known on Tuesday'

Staff Reporter

Revenue site owners to be allotted 30 x 40 sites

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) will have a clear picture of the land available to it for development of Arkavathy Layout on Tuesday, said BDA Commissioner M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda.

He said at the meeting on Wednesday , the board had decided that it would not go ahead with development in areas built up before the preliminary notification.

"This is according to the High Court order. We are going by its directions," Mr. Gowda said.

Of the 2,750 acres notified for the layout, nearly 748 acres are in dispute. There are 1,424 aggrieved landowners, a majority of whom owned revenue sites, seeking exclusion of their land from the acquisition process.

Land acquisition

BDA officials said the board had decided to acquire 837 acres and 28 guntas of notified land, which was under litigation but which had been cleared now.

For the revenue site owners, who had the sales deed registered before the preliminary notification, the BDA would give a 30 x 40 site at BDA rates on an out-of-turn allotment basis.

Applicants anxious

For several applicants short-listed by the BDA for an Arkavathy site, it is more anxious days.

The applicants, who have been waiting for allotment letters since January, are concerned that the layout might be downsized. "Will all the short-listed applicants get sites. Or will some of us be turned away?" asks Sharath.

Mr. Gowda refused to comment on whether there would be any shortfall in the number of sites. "We will know only after Tuesday," he said.