Power and water connections only after BBMP approval

Aspiring house owners, beware. It would be best to stick to the sanctioned building plan, as even the smallest deviations in the form of setbacks in front, rear, left or right side of the building, height of the structure or number of floors, could leave the building in darkness and without water. In a bid to crack down on violators and plug loopholes, the three civic stakeholders - BBMP, BWSSB and Bescom - will coordinate to enforce the law.

For full details, click on
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAwOC8wOS8yOSNBcjAwMzAy&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

This is indeed a most welcome development. In fact, this was very much a part of the process until almost a decade back. However, with liberalisation, instead of giving up their roles as players, and concentrating on facilitation and regulation, the Boards (as they were then constituted) started looking at themselves as ‘profit centres’, and the checks and balances of the earlier regime, just crumbled, bringing in in its wake the chaos of the present day. For more on that, click on my old blog post

The way to subvert this is to resume building after the sanction has been obtained, and the connections given. This can easily be checked with the co-operation of the vigilant public, provided the BBMP means business. Hope they do.

Muralidhar Rao