A day after Deccan Chronicle reported about the Urban Development department’s move to relax the stringent change of land use rules under Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act (KTCP) Section 14 (a), an all-important meeting convened by the department to give clearance to the committee to bring about the relaxation, decided to skip the issue and pass on the buck to the Chief Minister’s office.
According to sources in the secretariat, the committee, set up under the in-charge director of the department of town planning, Mr S.S. Topagi, walked into the meeting with the cutout of the Deccan Chronicle report. Subsequently, the committee, which wanted to relax norms, backed down from its earlier stand. Sources said the committee has recommended change of land use only for those land parcels which will benefit the public. Further, the committee suggested to the meeting, attended by principal secretary, UDD, BMRDA Commissioner and BIAPPA officials, that any change to the recommendations can be brought in through the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), thereby passing the buck to the CMO.
The meeting decided to consider following cases, i.e., errors in representation of boundaries such as defence, forest, airport authorities and public institutions, improper indication of ground features such as nalas, cart tracks, tanks, quarries, brick kilns, errors in representation of alignment of existing road, improper indication of cadastral details such as boundary and number of parcels.
The meeting also decided to allow changes to correct errors in location of parks, playgrounds and open spaces of plans of approved layouts in the Master Plan, approved layouts and development, but not incorporated in the Master Plan, approvals accorded by competent authorities not incorporated in the Master Plan such as NA conversions and lands granted by government for specific purposes and nalas, tanks and other features not indicated in the Master Plan.
The meeting also decided to consider proposals of various government departments which have been made prior to the formulation of the Master Plan, but not indicated in the Master Plan. It also recommended changes in location, alignment of Master Plan proposals at the time of execution due to ground conditions or policy interventions of the government. Minor changes in the alignment of roads due to ground conditions, necessitating change in land falling in original alignment will also be allowed.
The meeting also accorded approval for policy decisions of the government, including investment policies with respect to developments, public housing schemes, establishment of mass transit systems such as Metro, ring roads, BRTS, airports and establishment of SEZs.