BENGALURU:About one year back, Hariharan Ramanathan, a resident of 1st Stage Indiranagar noticed a new house being built in his locality. After the completion of three floors, the building went on add add more floors in violation of BBMP building norms.
Alarmed, Hariharan who is also the secretary of a local residents group, the Indiranagar 1st Stage League, informed a number of authorities. “We never even realized how much the building had progressed. Presently the building has a ground floor and five floors on top. The moment the third floor was built, we asked the BBMP Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), a person called Krishna to come and inspect the building for the violation and book its owner for the same,” says Hariharan.
In addition to this, Hariharan also took pictures of the building and posted information about the violation on a WhatsApp group that had as its members the local corporator and MLA, the concerned Chief Engineer, and informed of the status of the construction every month. There were no replies from the authorities on the group. When contacted, Anand Kumar, corproator, Hoysala Nagar (ward 80) says, “From what I know the AEE has issued a notice to the owner of the building. No resident personally come to me for any help on the matter.”
Little Result
Hariharan however says that the work has not stopped on the ground. “The AEE told us that he has booked the building for violation however nothing has changed. The only thing left is for the building to be plastered now. The entire five floors has already been completed,” he says. Repeated calls to AEE, Krishna to know more about the matter went unanswered.
The building is located in a plot with a 60X40 dimension. Mukunda N S, founder of the Citizens Action Forum, says in residential area , constructing a building and adding floors depends on the floors spacing index or FSI. “According to the FSI of the building in question, it can have only a ground floor and two more floors. In certain circumstances another floor can be added. But six floors is a complete violation of the building norms”
Another Violation
In another case in 15th cross Eshwara Layout, Indiranagar – under Jogupalya (Ward 89) – residents have been crying hoarse with regards to a building violation on the same lines.
Kavitha, a local resident says, “There is a building right next to my house that used to comprise of three floors. Suddenly, one and a half years back construction started on more floors. We informed the BBMP, the local corporator but nothing seemed to work. Some of the people from the BBMP also came to inspect the building. However there have been no results.” Work on the building is completed and only the plastering is left.
When contacted about such violations, B S Prasad, Chief Engineer (East), says, “Local authorities take care of such violations and we book people according to the rules.”