Sakrama - setting things right?

Tarle, Have to differ with you on this. I should not have to bear the responsibility of enforcing things around my area. Imagine I object to a violation and then the person concerned starts harassing me and threatening me (which in today's lawless Bangalore is more than a possibility). What recourse do I have? Take the case of my mother-in-law. She has apartments next door. One of the occupants just started a construction on the terrace of the apartment (an extra apartment essentially). My mother-in-law and a small group protested and wrote to the BBMP, etc. The man in question filed a police complaint against my mother-in-law's domestic help. My mother-in-law somehow rescued her. The BBMP refused to do anything as they were hand in glove - they in fact let him dump material,etc. Now the case is in court. Construction has stopped. The point is that no one in the apartment protested as they did not want trouble. This system might work in the suburbs of the US where people have a recourse to law and the local enforcement agencies are probably free of corruption. Srivathsa

Maya - Absolutely Right. What you mention is so correct. My take on this is as follows : Building violations have occurred on a very large scale, both commercial & residential. Building violators can be given a set time period, say one year to demolish /rectify their buildings to conform with bye-laws. There may be some who cannot do this because the whole structure may be affected, or they may simply decide not to rectify their violations. In such cases, after the deadline, a stiff penalty is to be imposed & their property tax will need to be hiked up substantially based on the extent of violation. Commercial buildings would also need to contribute to the construction of multi-storeyed parking units since such buildings usually provide no parking facilities & their activities would crowd the roadsides with parked cars. Thus, such buildings would become unattractive to them since they will realise that they are shelling out exorbitant bye-law violation charges & paying out much more annually as long as they maintain their buildings with violations. This will spur them to think of either demolishing the building entirely or try to demolish parts of their buildings to stay within bye-laws. This will act as a deterrent against violations for new constructions & everyone will fall in line eventually, though it may take some time for the system to settle & be successful. Implementation is another question mark as building owners will try to manipulate & pay bribes - so, a system has to be developed & a database of building violations composed independently by a private agency who should have incentives to register such cases with actual proof such as drawings pointing out the deviations, etc. This may involve some investments from the govt, but it will be worth it since it will profit in the long run by way of bringing down such violations in the long term. Instead of coming up with such severe measures, govt is trying to pardon them for violations with only a one time payment & such a move will encourage others to do the same & then seek pardon at some later time ! The courts will obviously judge that it cannot accept violations as it goes against the very principles of justice, but I doubt if this will prevent the sakrama scheme from going ahead since the legislature consists of a mix of interests, most of which is party to such violations & will naturally bat for pardoning & regularising them. This is synonymous with what has already occurred in Delhi (Sealing drive!) & in Mumbai (Ullasnagar case, where the corporator himself had violated bye-laws).

While Sakarma on building violations are fine.What i dont understand is BBMP's rule that all houses which were constructed in the erstwhile gram panchayat areas which have now come under BBMP are all unauthorized.the BBMP states that panchayats do not have power to sanction and approve plans.what that means is that all the buildings constructed outside of BBMP are all unauthorized.Doesnt this sound weird to people who have been living for a long time in the village areas that are now under BBMP will have to now pay Sakarma.

There was a deadline for Sakrama sometime in Dec 07. What is the latest news about apartments?

And how the new violations will be treated which are not yet registered?