BENGALURU: The 18th Block in Arkavathy Layout is in a bigger mess than the rest thanks to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) blundering by double allotting five sites here by changing the site number and carrying out minor modifications.
Infrastructure work in the entire Block has come to a standstill due to the stand-off between the original allottees, who have recently got to know about it, and the new site owners.
N Nayan learnt to his horror when he went to visit the site allotted to his father R Narayanappa, a retired army officer, that it had been allotted to someone else by the BDA without any intimation to the family. "We had got the Absolute Sale Deed for my father's site at Basaveshwaranagar in June 2006 for a cost of Rs 4.54 lakh. Though he visited his property at regular intervals, he stopped during COVID. He wanted to build a house there to gift it to his two daughters. So, I visited the site last month after four years and learnt to my shock that it had been allotted to the original landowner in 2021 without intimating us."
Nayan, a boutique owner, then decided to safeguard it. "It was our property and my father has a sentimental value attached to it and I fenced it completely," he said.
Another former defence staffer, Govind Reddy, was given a site allotment letter in June 2006 in Byrathi Khane but never got the site.
His son PG Sashidhar told The New Indian Express, "My father, a retired air force staffer, went to Court and got the verdict in our favour in July 2013. BDA gave us the lease cum sale deed for site no. 139 in April 2015 and the Absolute Sale Deed in Feb 2017.
"We have been paying property tax till 2021. It was when I heard that my site has been allotted to the landowner itself by changing the number to BK-131. When I visited the site recently, I saw the new owner Changalaraya Reddy had begun fencing it. I urged him not to do so and he stopped it temporarily."
A BDA official conceded they made a double allotment of some sites out of 300 sites in this Block as the landowners had to be given priority and 40% of developed land.
"BDA is now conducting an audit of its sites. We will give alternative sites to those whom we allotted the site originally in the 18th Block within two months," he said.
In the tussle between the new and old site allottees, infrastructure work in the Block has become a casualty.