Illegal buildings on BBMP radar

By Nischith N | NT

Bengaluru: Over 4,729 buildings out  of 5,905 surveyed have  violated existing building bylaws, a BBMP survey has found. The  buildings included in  the survey are those  that were sanctioned  between January 2020  and June 30, 2021. The  BBMP has slammed notices to a few of the  building owners.

This move came after  the Palike was chastised by the High Court,  following a series building collapses during the  heavy rains that took  place in October. The  Court noted that civic  authorities had failed to  act against so many illegal constructions and  directed initiation of a  suo moto PIL. The petition contained a reference to an earlier order  by the Court, to which  the BBMP had responded saying it could not  act on demolitions due  to a lack of funds.

“There should zero  tolerance to illegal constructions, especially  those in bigger cities,”  the Court had said.  “Even the cases were  owners plead compassion and claim hardships should not be tole r a t e d , ” it said ,  indicating an unequivocal stand on the matter.  A court also directed  the BBMP to produce a  timeline for the survey,  which was to include  structures built without  permission and those  which had permission  but had substantial and  major variations from  the sanctioned plan.

Advocate Prashanth  SH, a senior counsel appearing for the BBMP  told News Trail that “it  is difficult to survey  every property because  there are so many.  That’s why BBMP decided to focus on buildings sanctioned between January 2020 and  June 30 this year, as a  first step, for buildings  that had violated existing sanction plans. Surveying constructions  that have no sanction  whatsoever is the next  step.”

The most common violation is the ‘setback  area’, or the minimum  distance between two  buildings. The second  pertains to coverage  area – the total area covered by the building immediately above plinth  level. The third mostcommon pertains to the  floor area ratio of building sites, calculated  based on the width of  the road.

A BBMP senior official for town planning  said that the policy of  re gularising ille g al  buildings is still pending before the apex  court. “The court’s direction says that the  BBMP must identify the  buildings for now. We  have also issued notices  in some zones.”