BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has appealed to people not to build houses without building plan approval.
He said that the Supreme Court in its recent ruling has given directions that water and electricity connections should not be provided to buildings without plan approval and occupancy certificate.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Shivakumar said: “Over 2.5 lakh people in urban areas and villages have built houses without getting building plan approval and have now applied for electricity and water connections.”
“Some of those who have built houses without any plan approval have paid deposits to the electric boards requesting new connections. We are discussing with officials on what action we can take within the legal framework so that the general public are not put to any inconvenience,” he said.
He said that in the wake of the SC directive, it is difficult to legalize a house if it is built illegally. “The SC directive is being implemented in the state in a hurry. Officials are trying to ensure that they do not face any further problem,” Shivakumar said adding that officials are blaming politicians and, therefore, they have come forward to resolve this issue.
On introducing the Akrama Sakrama Bill to legalize illegal buildings, Shivakumar said that the SC has already stayed the Bill. “Our government is discussing how to resolve all the problems related to ‘A’ khata and B khata”, he said.
He said that after the SC ruling, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board is facing problems as it provided 39,000 new water supply connections in June last year in 110 villages, while this year, they were able to provide only 300 connections.