Ordinance to regularise more illegal structures

mangaloretoday.com

Bangalore: Oct 11, 2013 (DHNS): The State Cabinet on Friday gave its nod to put off the cutoff date for regularising unauthorised urban constructions under the Akrama Sakrama scheme, by promulgating an ordinance.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said the day the Governor signs the ordinance would be the new cutoff date for regularising buildings built in violation of by-laws. The old cutoff date was December 3, 2009.

 

Governor H R Bhardwaj had only recently given his assent to the Karnataka Town and Country Planning And Certain Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009 (popularly known as Akrama Sakrama scheme), that seeks to regularise constructions that have violated rules pertaining to the setback area and floor area ratio. However, the legislation covered only  illegal buildings constructed before December 3, 2009.

“There were requests from the public that we extend the date (to include illegal constructions post Dec 3, 2009). We will promulgate an ordinance to facilitate this,” Jayachandra said and added that the time frame for receiving applications would be finalised while framing the rules of the scheme.

The fine for regularisation would also be decided with the new rules, he said. The Act amends Section 76 FF that empowers planning officials to conditionally regularise unauthorised constructions.

According to existing rules, up to 25 per cent violation by residential buildings will attract a penalty of six per cent of the guidance value of the property and eight per cent penalty for violations between 25 and 50 per cent. For non-residential buildings, regularisation charges will be 20 per cent of the guidance value for less than 12.5 per cent violation and 35 per cent for violations up to 25 per cent.

Jayachandra did not indicate when the government proposed to send the ordinance to the Governor.

The JD(S)-BJP coalition government pioneered the scheme in 2007, inviting criticism from the Congress party, which was then in the Opposition.

Ordinance, from Page 1

The scheme then allowed only three months — September 15 to December 14, 2007 — for owners to get their illegal constructions regularised, that too for a high fee.

Later, the BJP regime slashed the penalty and extended the cutoff date till December 3, 2009, as a sop ahead of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike elections. But the scheme fell through as the Governor did not give his assent until August 2013.

In July last, the Governor assented to another legislation as well — a land revenue bill that sought to regularise unauthorised houses built by the poor on government revenue land in rural areas. The rules for implementing this law will be framed soon, the minister said.

The Governor, however, returned another bill that sought to regularise unauthorised houses built by the urban poor on government revenue land.

DH News Service