BENGALURU: Bowing to demands from allottees of Arkavathy Layout, who are yet to receive alternative sites following the denotification of their properties, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), has agreed to set up an exclusive Help Desk.
BDA Engineer Member P N Nayak conceded to the demand following a written petition by two groups representing the allottees.Members of the Arkavathy Site Allottees Association insisted on this requirement among other demands. Speaking to Express, Nayak said, “The Help Desk will be set up within a week to ten days. Officials familiar with all the issues pertaining to the Layout will figure in it.”
Staff manning the Help Desk will be available for assistance one or two days a week and allottees will be given advance notification regarding their availability, Nayak said.
Bhaskar Reddy, a representative of the Association, had demanded that the Help Desk include representatives from the Allotment, Land Acquisition, Engineering and Town Planning wings of the BDA.
“BDA needs to scrap the seniority list announced for the Arkavathy Layout, as it only includes those who have a lease-cum-sale certificate. Individuals who only have a provisional certificate regarding the allotment but have not yet completed the registration also need to be incorporated in the list as they have waited almost 13 years for it,” Reddy said.
The members also insisted that the allotment process be made transparent. The petition was signed by its members with the ‘Block No.14 Arkavathy Allottees Residential Association’ also backing their demands.
Meanwhile, M Nagaraj, representative of another group (not yet named), said, “We plan to meet the CM and Bengaluru Development Minister K J George, in connection with our sites shortly.” He threatened that they would stage a dharna at Freedom Park next month if their grievances were not redressed.
Folded hands and pleas continue
The allottees, largely senior citizens from different parts of the city, were once again there at the BDA office at 3pm, to attend a grievances meeting in connection with their sites. Representing a senior citizen was Vasanta Jayaram from Hebbal. “My mother-in-law had paid `1,13,750 for a 20x30 site at Gadelahalli in 2006. She received a notice two years ago saying the site had been denotified.” A section of the crowd labelled the BDA as ‘Brashtachar Development Corporation’.
Secretary Basavaraju, who assumed office on Tuesday, told the crowd, “I need some time to study the issue.” He assured then that their grievances would be redressed.