BENGALURU: Amid protests from BJP members demanding the resignation of Minister for Planning and Statistics, B Nagendra, in the alleged ST Corporation scam, the assembly approved three crucial bills on Thursday.
The bills passed include the Bangalore Development Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2026; the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Heritage Area Development Authority(Amendment) Bill, 2026.
The BDA (Amendment) Bill is proposing changes to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) Act, 1976, including a significant increase in the financial sanctioning powers of the BDA Commissioner and a reduction in charges for regularising certain unauthorised occupants of BDA land.
The amendment also introduces a two-year deadline for unauthorised occupants. If such occupants do not obtain allotment of a site under the provision within two years from the commencement of the amendment, the BDA will have the power to evict them.
Minister for Bengaluru Development Krishna Byre Gowda who presented the bill said that the government needs to provide relief to the people and enable them to obtain permanent documentation and full ownership rights over their properties.
He claimed that it is a significant amendment to further reduce the applicable rates and charges by 50 per cent. There are about 1,11,560 unauthorised houses constructed on land acquired by the BDA,
he said. Under the proposed amendment to Section 10 of the Act, the Commissioner’s pecuniary sanctioning limit will be raised from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 5 crore. The government said the move was aimed at facilitating urgent works, including repairs and maintenance of BDA flats, villas and layouts, and avoiding delays in executing such works in view of the Authority’s budgetary outlay.
The Bill also proposes changes to Section 38D concerning the allotment of sites to unauthorised occupants of BDA land. The allotment charges have been substantially reduced to encourage eligible occupants to come forward and obtain allotment of their sites.
The Karnataka Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill proposes penalty for non-completion of development of layouts approved from 2005 onwards and prior to the date of commencement of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Act, 2015.
Penalty is being levied by the Planning Authorities in accordance with the government directions following the notification issued on November 22, 2018 for not completing the development works in the approved layouts and it is found necessary to bring it under the statutory provisions and also validate the penalty already levied or collected.
The Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Heritage Area Development Authority(Amendment) Bill, proposes to speed up the development works under the authority. The CM will be its chairman, the Deputy Chief Minister or the Minister in-charge of Revenue will be the Ex-officio Vice-Chairperson.
Ministers for Bengaluru Development, in-charge of Bengaluru South District, in-charge of Bengaluru Rural District will be the ex-officio members.
Six non-official members, from Bengaluru Urban District/ Bengaluru Rural District/ Bengaluru South District who are experts in history and heritage of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, to be nominated by the state government.
