BDA under heavy fire for its shady deals

The alleged murky dealings in the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) came under severe criticism in the legislative assembly on Friday with senior Congress leader TB Jayachandra demanding a legislature committee probe into the functioning of the BDA and also various housing cooperative societies.
Participating in the debate on the budget, Jayachandra dwelt at length on the irregularities in BDA. Referring to formation of Arkavathy Layout, he said sites had not been allotted to thousands of ordinary citizens, who had been waiting for years. In many cases though the allotment was done, the possession of sites had not taken place.

But surprisingly bulk allotments had been made for IAS, IPS, IFS officers in the name of IAS Officers Housing Cooperative Society.
“Why this special treatment for IAS or IPS officers, when the ordinary citizens are being meted out a raw deal?” he questioned.
Referring to the controversy over ‘G’ category sites that had been allotted to MLAs and MLCs under the chief minister’s discretionary quota, he expressed serious displeasure at the adverse reports appearing in the media, the furore the issue generates among the public and the recent high court order canceling such allotments.
“Doesn’t a legislator deserve a site in Bangalore to live. Then, why the same standards are not applied for IAS or IPS officers. A fair and equitable system of site allotment should be worked out,” he said.

Jayachandra suggested that the government should take up the issue with even the judiciary in this regard.

“There are six parks in Arkavathy Layout according to the plan chart. But when I visited the spot, I was surprised to see a huge multistoried building on one of the park sites. What is the BDA doing? Former chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda had assured a CID probe into the issue, but no action has been taken so far,” Jayachandra said.

“There are 8,000 site aspirants waiting for their sites after paying the money. Why they have not got the sites yet? Why the layout has not been developed yet,” he asked.

“The BDA should come clean of its murky dealings. It needs a major surgery to cure it from all the ills. It had become a centre for real estate dhandha (business) for many. Everything here moves with only with money. Rates have been fixed for everything,” he said.

Jayachandra demanded that the state government should constitute a house committee to probe the BDA’s irregularities, besides the affairs of various housing cooperative societies, which have formed layouts and allotted sites.

Expressing concern about the sky rocketing price of land in and around Bangalore, Jayachandra said,

“You cannot buy a small site in Bangalore with any amount in lakhs. Today you need money in crores to do so. This has fuelled real estate business in a big way and the huge money in this business is finding its way to politics too.”

Jayachandra wanted the government to put an end to real estate lobby in politics, which is vitiating the electoral process.
“The real estate biggies are pouring in hundreds of crores of rupees to win elections. They are creating a situation where honest people cannot contest or hope to win an election. It is threatening the very foundations of democracy. The consequences will be disastrous if this is not controlled,” he observed.

The notification and denotification of lands had become a huge business and in Bangalore alone the real estate dealings are generating money to the tune of lakhs of crores.
“It can take care of entire farm loans of farmers if regulated properly, through schemes like regularisation of unauthorised layouts and collecting penalties from those who have violated building norms,” he said.