As Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) announced its change in stance on Akrama Sakrama (regularisation) scheme through a letter on Tuesday, the members of Citizens Action Forum (CAF), who were the initial petitioners in the High Court, are highly disappointed. While they are not completely against regularisation, they are also not willing to compromise on certain terms related to the scheme.
In the letter, NBF said that it will not object to the government approaching the Supreme Court to seek exemption for poor and middle-class families under the scheme.
Earlier, in 2017, NBF had filed a petition in the Supreme Court and brought a stay on Akrama Sakrama as they believed that it would have enriched builders who committed illegalities. “...NBF was and continues to maintain that Akrama Sakrama must not benefit builders to get windfall gains from their illegalities, but that regularisation of properties of those citizens who have built their own homes, especially poor and middle class, should be permitted. But the Government of Karnataka has not approached the SC with any clarificatory petition on this to allow this,” the letter said.
The original petitioners say that NBF decided unilaterally on this without consulting others. “We filed the original petition and we brought NBF along when we had to go to the Supreme Court (as it would cost more). They are making things easy for the government to play around and get the badly needed revenue. In the process, they are spoiling the concept of planning,” said N.S. Mukunda of Praja Vedike, also a founding member of CAF.
He added that before carrying out the scheme, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) should be asked to prove that they will avoid any further deviations in future buildings. “They should give a cut-off date and say that if any deviation comes after that, the buildings will be demolished,” he said. He added that while severely penalising the officers who indulge in illegalities, building owners who get a concession should be given a condition to pay an extra percentage of property tax throughout the life of that building. “These conditions are necessary to honour the rule of law,” he said.
Vijayan Menon, president, CAF also said that the Akrama Sakrama campaign has been CAF’s over the years and they had not received any communication from the NBF before making the decision. “What they have put out in the letter seems to be an unworkable situation as it looks like it has been driven by a political agenda. CAF is still very much in the game. We have a Special Leaves Petition (SLP) in the SC for a similar matter. We are not going to let it go just like that,” he said.
While adding that CAF is not against regularisation and understands the situation of illegal buildings in Bengaluru, he said that the current Act is still irresponsible. He also added that as the latest draft of the Act has also included the regularisation of land use violations, the CAF is totally against it and there will be no compromises when it comes to it. He said that those problems should be solved with a negotiated Revised Master Plan (RMP).
“If the administration is willing to listen and put in the hard work, there are many principles on which Akrama Sakrama can be done in a systematic manner. We have separate solutions,” Mr. Menon added.
