A Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) survey has found over 1.8 lakh buildings that were not authorised by the civic agency in Bengaluru. This is according to an ongoing survey by the civic body on illegal and unauthorised buildings in the city. “Unauthorised buildings are the ones where people don’t take permission from the BBMP, and neither does the BBMP give them permission, which leads to B-Khata properties,” BBMP Special Commissioner of Projects, Ravindra PN told TNM.
In addition to 1.8 lakh unauthorised buildings, the civic body also found 36,759 buildings that had deviated from the sanctioned plans. The irregularities that the BBMP found in the buildings are setbacks, a term to describe the violation of minimum space around any building or construction. Other violations included buildings with extra floors and breach of floor area ratio.
The BBMP has missed multiple deadlines in submitting the compliance report to the High Court and the ongoing survey is set to take at least two more months, the BBMP Special Commissioner told TNM. “There are so many reasons for the delay like potholes and monsoons. It will take another two months to complete the survey.” When asked about the areas with the highest number of illegal constructions, he said, “We only have one consolidated figure, so there is no data or information regarding which areas have the highest number of illegal buildings.”
As per a Times of India report, in March 2022, 10,000 notices were issued to the unauthorised property owners. When asked about the status of the notices that were sent out, Ravindra said, “There is no response from the building owners, and we will send out new notices. There are various stages regarding issuing notices as well, as there are variations in the percentage of deviation from the sanctioned plan; some buildings have 10%, 12%, 15%, and some have 25% of nonconformity, which will be checked again to send notices.” As of now, BBMP has no data on the notices that have been sent to the owners of illegal buildings, he added.
When asked about developments with respect to the High Court order to demolish illegal structures and submit a compliance report, he said, “Our aim is to complete the survey and simultaneously, we will send out the notices to the building owners. In particular cases, I will definitely give directions for demolition. We have identified the totally unauthorised buildings, and we will definitely be demolishing them; the officer concerned will decide. I will submit the compliance report to the High Court.”
He claimed that the BBMP officials do not sanction wrong plans and it is the builders who violate the rules. “Whichever plan is approved is the right one and is legal. It is on the public side that there is a violation of bye-laws and rules.” He also said that the onus is on the purchaser, who often becomes an unaware victim of occupying an illegal building, to check if there is any violation in the building construction or if the builder has followed the due procedure.
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