The Department of Law, GoK, had remained silent for 4 years. It now has advised BMICAPA that the BMIC project needs its approval and must pay betterment fees. As thing stand BMIC has neither sought approval nor has paid any fees, which run into "hundreds of crores". So what exactly is BMIC willing to do?
in a two-page reply to the BMICAPA’s half a dozen letters, the Law Department has said that any organisation or individual should seek the planning authority’s approval before taking up any activity under Sections 15 and 17 of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act.
The BMICAPA had written over half a dozen letters to the Law Department since 2006 seeking its opinion on the issue. Besides, it also wanted to know whether Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) the project promoter was exempted from paying the betterment fee. Any person developing a piece of land should pay fee to the planning authority, as per the KTCP Act.
The BMIC project is already underway and nearly 50 km of road has been developed by the promoter on the outskirts of Bangalore. The NICE, on its part, has maintained that the Supreme Court had exempted the project from the planning authority’s approval.
On betterment fee, NICE has replied that the exemption has been given to the company in the framework agreement. Moreover, the total fee amount would run to several hundreds of crores if it was imposed on the project, it said.
Finally, Law Dept breaks silence on NICE
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