BENGALURU: With the Supreme Court staying the state government’s scheme to regularise buildings with violations up to 50 per cent, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government may not be able to implement the Akrama-Sakrama scheme during its tenure. Legal experts say it may take at least three years for all the legal issues to be sorted out before the scheme can be implemented.
On Friday, the apex court stayed a move to regularise illegal constructions. BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said they are yet to get the order. Once they get it, they will discuss the issue with legal experts and take steps to get the stay order vacated, he said. But legal experts feel this is not going to happen anytime soon.
A senior advocate practicing in the Karnataka High Court said, “Now that it is before the Supreme Court, it will take not less than three years. It took about 10 years time when it was before the High Court.’’
Another senior advocate, who did not wish to be named, said there may not be much chance that the government or BBMP will get relief anytime soon.
The idea of regularising unauthorised structures was first mooted in 2004 when S M Krishna was the chief minister. But the scheme faced many legal and political hurdles when successive chief ministers — H D Kumaraswamy, B S Yeddyurappa, D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar as well as Siddaramaiah — came to power.
The Supreme Court’s stay order on the scheme was however welcomed by Residents’ Welfare Associations. N Mukund of Jayanagar 5th Block Residents’ Welfare Association said, “The amendment was not done scientifically. How can all violations be regularised by merely paying a fine? This will increase corruption in the civic body. If the deviation is more than 25 per cent, engineers can show less deviation and collect less penalty from influential people. We did not demand for Akrama-Sakrama.”
Srinivasachari, a senior citizen from Ittamadu in Banashankari, said every time a new government comes to power, they announce the scheme in their manifesto, but do nothing.