BENGALURU: Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) workers bulldozed 16 temporary structures at various locations in Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout on Monday. A senior BDA official said, “We demolished 16 temporary structures that had sprung up in the layout at Somashettihalli, Medi Agrahara and Lakshmipura.” He estimated that nearly 800 such structures in the layout are expected to face the axe in the future.
The Supreme Court had, in its order dated December 3, 2020, made it clear that all constructions built after August 3, 2018, can be deemed illegal. BDA commissioner Rajesh Gowda said, “The survey numbers and superimposed satellite images of different timelines were considered by us. The buildings were not there even in November 2020. But images reveal these sheds in March 2021.”Jayakar Jerome, one of the three members of the Supreme Court-constituted Justice Chandrashekar Committee for Dr Shivram Karanth layout, said that barring the 13 minor layouts out of 17, which had been given BDA approval and legal certification by the Committee, the legality of the remaining constructions are being examined.
“We have already received around 5,000 documents from property owners which are being processed. Every minor aspect is being thoroughly studied by us,” he said.Owing to the additional work handed over to the Committee to assess if the 17 BDA Layouts certified by it were valid, the deadline to submit the report has been extended up to March 31, 2022.
The Shivaram Karanth layout will be BDA’s second-biggest layout with 18,975 sites coming up in villages between Doddaballapur and Hesaraghatta. Regarding the land acquisition status of the layout, another official said that the compensation award notices had been despatched to property owners of 1,500 acres and their consent is awaited. “A total of 300 acres have been acquired so far out of the 3,546 acres that the layout requires,” he added.