It’s no secret that land is a scarce commodity in and around the city. The government makes it a point to shout this out from the rooftops to justify the fact that anganwadis don’t have buildings of their own or when it finds it tough to locate land for industries. The recent Global Investors’ Meet (GIM) saw it chant the ‘Look beyond Bengaluru’ mantra for this sole reason and several MoUs signed during the previous GIM still remain on paper only because it claims it cannot find the land required to make them a reality.
But strangely, this scarcity of land does not seem to stop consecutive governments from identifying stray sites in and around the city for distribution under ‘G’ category to elected representatives at their discretion. Members of Parliament, MLAs and MLCs continue to receive sites under this category although Rule 5 (a) of the Bangalore Development Authority Site Allotment Act 1984, clearly says they are meant only for “persons in public life,” which is believed to be a reference to those who have made a difference with their life’s work to society.
“The blatant misuse of the discretionary allotment continues despite a high court ruling by Justice S. Abdul Nazir that ‘G’ category sites are meant only for eminent personalities in various fields,” says Mr S. Vasudeva, a city advocate, who has filed two petitions challenging the allotment of ‘G’ category sites to MLAs and MLCs.
Although the state government claims it has not allotted ‘G’ category sites to any elected representative since the December 15, 2010 verdict of the high court, an RTI application by an associate of Mr Vasudeva has nailed its lie. The Bangalore Development Authority has admitted in response to the application that the government has allotted as many as 66 ‘G’ category sites between December 14, 2010 and December 25, 2011, and 21 of them have been given to MLAs, MLCs and IAS officers.
“Although ‘G’ category sites are meant for people who have made outstanding contributions in the fields of science, literature, sports and so on, nearly every Chief Minister dangles the carrot of a site allotment using this provision before MLAs to keep his flock together,” rues Mr Vasudev.
Worse, some of these ‘privileged’ allottees flout all norms and sell the sites they are given at the market price before the 10-year mandatory period is up, he claims. The court could have the final say in the matter, however, as the final hearing of the petitions he has filed has been posted for next week.