Karnataka government to allot land plots under special categories

BENGALURU: The allotment of land by the government under the special categories which landed the Yedurappa Government in trouble is back again. The Chief Minister Mr. Siddaramaiah initially hinted that the government would refrain from allotting the G category land and plots in Bengaluru. The allotees will be chosen according to the discretion of the Chief Minister.

The Bangalore Development Authority (Allotment of sites) Amendments Rules 2015 which was notified on the 20^th of May 2015 confers the powers to BDA to start the allocation of sites for the special category people. It is this allotment of land to the special category people that landed the Yedurappa government in trouble.

The commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority Mr. Sham Bhatt said that a cabinet sub-committee was set up that looked in to the B Padmaraj panel report on the land that fell under the G Category sites. This committee was set up by the direction of the high court after a lawyer Mr. Vasudev Murthy filed a writ petition on the issue of the distribution of land in 2010. After that the court according to Mr. Bhatt has given directives to the government to continue with the distribution of the G category lands by asking the civic agencies along with the government to formulate rules for the allotment of land plots.

In this regard the Comptroller and the Auditor General (CAG) in its report said that the BDA needs to amend certain anomalies including the listing of the stray land plots before deciding to allot the sites. 

In this context the commissioner replied that they are on the process of rectifying their anomalies including listing that of the stray sites before the BDA starts allotting the sites. Mr. Bhatt said they are still preparing the list of stray sites and plots of land and in few days’ time they will come to know the exact extent of the stray sites available. In his statement he also reiterated that the lands that are in litigation are also or will be considered in the list of stray sites. This will eventually make more sites and land plot available for distribution under various categories.

This is also true that the BDA will have to reserve 30 percent of the stray sites under special category for the people in public life. But these will be selected under the discretion of the Chief Minister. In this regard the government has reduced the reservation of the people in sports and who are recognized in the national and international level to 10 percent from 15 percent. But at the same time the reservation for the people who got recognition in the field of art, literature, painting, sculpture, music, dance, drama and others have been increased. This category also includes people and judges occupying the higher levels of the judiciary, either sitting or the former judges.