BENGALURU: The apex court has offered a glimmer of hope for those who lost their revenue sites for the formation of the Anjanapura, Banashankari and Visvesvaraya Layouts of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), said the chief of the Supreme Court-appointed committee for Dr Shivram Karanth Layout on Monday.
Talking to reporters, committee chairman Justice A V Chandrashekar, former Karnataka High Court judge, pointed out that in a recent directive, the Supreme Court had asked the BDA to come up with a plan of action for revenue sites as had been done in the past. Revenue sites refer to those formed without the approval of the BDA. “The SC has a larger interest in protecting the rights of revenue site holders too,” he said.
The committee was set up to identify lawful constructions in the notified lands of Dr Shivaram Karnath Layout prior to August 3, 2018, in order to legalise them. People have been given time till April 30 to submit their property documents to it.
“A total of 1,850 applications have been received so far, of which 350 have been received online. We received 1,500 through five help desks,” Justice Chandrashekar said. “However, we expected it to be much more, but the campaign of misinformation undertaken by (Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sanga president) Kodihalli Chandrashekar has impacted the responses.”
The panel had issued the farmer leader a showcause notice seeking his response for “spreading rumours and wrong information” in 17 villages. “Kodihalli has not responded till March 25, the time period he sought to respond to the notice. We have sent a report about the issue to the SC recently,” the former judge said.
The state government was keen on forming the Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout and the campaign by Kodihalli stating that it was unlikely to be formed was false, the judge reiterated. BDA chairman S R Vishwanath had recently made it clear that the layout will be formed, he added.