BENGALURU: Some relief is in sight for farmers who have lost their land to Arkavathy Layout in Bangalore North. The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) plans to either hand over its vacant lands in any of its 64 Layouts or will acquire another 450 acres in Arkavathy and give it to the land losers.
The BDA had planned the Layout with 11,000 sites in 2003-2004. It acquired 1,806 acres of land to form the layout and 8,813 applicants have been allotted sites. A series of denotification orders was issued from 2004 to 2014, affecting 3,230 site owners and 300 landowners.
The issue has raged on since then with farmers protesting at the BDA head office every fortnight until Covid brought them to a halt since March this year. A top official told The New Indian Express, “We have begun a land audit of our properties spread across 64 layouts. Though most of them have been developed and handed over to the BBMP, the vacant lands and some CA sites are still in our possession. Our audit will be out in a month. If we find sufficient land, we will offer them as exchange to Arkavathy land losers. This is our Plan A.”
In case the land available is not sufficient, a Plan B too is ready. “We are looking at acquiring nearly 450 acres of land within Arkavathy itself. We will then hand it over to those who have lost their land. We got the consent for this plan at the recent BDA Board Meeting. We have identified them in many villages and are preparing a preliminary notification.”
Two top BDA officials confirmed that these options were on hand to solve the issue.However, an official said that Plan A is more likely to happen. “The process of acquisition of land would take another two years and continue to delay the compensation for land losers.”
BDA mulling sale of 5k more sites in KG Layout
With allottees handing back to the Bangalore Development Authority a total of 970 out of 10,000 sites that had been allotted to them in two phases, the Authority is now thinking of going in for the third round of allocation. “We are thinking of allotting these 970 sites as well as an additional 4,000 sites at KG Layout. Farmers who have lost their lands will be given priority in the allocation,” a senior official said. “The sites were returned for various reasons, including Vaastu, inability to get bank loans, financial emergencies and dissati-sfaction with the allotted site,” the official added.