BENGALURU: In a move that could benefit nearly 400 farmers who handed over their land for two BDA layouts over 15 years ago, the Bangalore Development Authority has decided to change the norms for the Incentive Scheme sites awarded to them. It has slashed the payment to be made by them from the present 70% to 25% of the market guidance value. The farmers parted with their land for Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout and Banashankari 6th Stage with a total of 10,000 sites in 2004. In exchange for the land, the farmers were offered developed sites of the same dimension in the vicinity of their surrendered land as compensation.
“However, due to the escalation in land value in the city, the farmers were asked to pay 70 percent of the prevalent guidance value for the incentive sites,” said a senior BDA official. Farmers had refused the offer, and were demanding a lower amount.
“The decision to slash the payment by farmers was taken at a high-level meeting on Tuesday evening,” said a BDA source. “This will be a big relief to the farmers who have pleaded with the Authority over the years and also held protests against the high cost. A longstanding problem has been finally sorted out,” he said.
BDA Commissioner H R Mahadev confirmed the development to TNIE. “We finalised it on Tuesday and sent the proposal to the government for approval.” Farmer representatives could not be reached for comment. A similar tussle related to compensation for acquired land is on between BDA and farmers who have parted with land for Arkavathy and Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda Layouts.
Corner site sale staggered over three days
Bengaluru: Unable to process the sale of over 200 corner sites at one go due to technical problems, the Bangalore Development Authority has now divided them into three sets. It has extended the final day of e-auctioning for each set on a specific day in three consecutive days. The entire auctioning process would end by 6 pm on July 10. While the BDA announced on Tuesday that the auction process was extended up to 6 pm on Wednesday due to technical glitches, at a meeting held early on Wednesday with the state’s e-procurement cell it was decided that the server would not be able to handle the load if 200 sites are auctioned at one go, said a BDA official.
Of the 205 sites to be auctioned, 62 were auctioned on Wednesday, 67 would be auctioned on Thursday, while 76 would go under the hammer on Friday, a press release said. “There were no problems on Wednesday when the first batch was auctioned,” another official said. Those who have been allotted the sites need to pay 25% of the total cost within 72 hours of the allotment, the release added. This refers to three (bank) working days, the official added.
BDA terminates contract with outsourced agency
The Bangalore Development Authority has terminated its contract with an agency that looked after its system operations over charges of misappropriation of funds. Superintendent of Police, BDA Task Force, Shivakumar Gunare, said “Two of their staff took the salary of a data entry operator who had resigned two months ago. When we began conducting checks, the amount was hastily returned to the BDA account.” The amount was less than Rs 30,000 but the attempt to misappropriate money was a serious offence. Since they were outsourced staff, no FIR has been filed, he added.