BMP to acquire defence land

BANGALORE, DHNS:
The BMP is planning to acquire Defence and Railway land required to provide better civic amenities in various part of the City, Mayor P R Ramesh said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters after inspecting civic amenities in Bharathinagar and Ulsoor, he said if necessary, the BMP would hold discussions with State and Central governments to acquire the land. A detailed survey is underway to identify such lands for acquisition, he added.

He said the BMP has decided to allow corporate firms to invest in the overall development of some selected main roads. He also directed the officials to chalk out a plan for renovation of Ulsoor market as it has become dilapidated.

CBI probe sought into de-notification of land

The Hindu,Bangalore, K.N. Chakrapani, General Secretary of the Janata Dal (Secular), has sought an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the de-notification of 4,500 acres of land acquired by the State Government for forming residential layouts around Bangalore over the past four-and-a-half years.

He told presspersons here on Saturday that de-notification of precious land, which had been going on for over four years, had resulted in vested interests amassing over Rs. 1,000 crore. The de-notification of land was in progress despite the model code of conduct coming into force, and the officials concerned were issuing pre-dated orders.

The other general secretaries of the party, Y.S.V. Datta, T. Prabhakar and M.V. Sriganesh, were also present. The Janata Dal(S) has brought out a booklet on the "land scam", and the party is planning to circulate copies of it to the voters in the city.

Mr. Chakrapani, who released several documents related to the de-notification of land, said the matter pertaining to the process was under the charge of a few officials in the Urban Development Department and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). "For every acre of land de-notified, not less than Rs. 20 lakh had been collected as a fee, and the amount varied based on the location of the land in question," he said.

He said that it would have been good had the lands been returned to their original owners. The de-notified lands were "given to the land mafia, real estate developers, and apartment builders who obviously made a kill."

"The modus operandi was that the land mafia and the developers would first identify the notified lands and strike a deal with the original land owners who would be paid a small advance. Thereafter, using their clout in the Government and the BDA, the lands would be de-notified for the benefit of forming private residential layouts or for construction of apartments. The de-notification of large tracts of land has obviously resulted in the mushrooming of apartments, resorts, and private residential layouts around Bangalore."

He said the de-notification of land commenced as early as February 2001 when the Srigandhadakaval Layout near Yeshwantapur notified by the J.H. Patel Government was de-notified.

The 468 acres of land was returned to the "original owners". The authorities did not spell out any reason for winding up the proposal to form the layout although steps had been taken to form it by the previous Government.

Thereafter at Anjanapura Township in Bangalore south, while the authorities had proposed to acquire 634 acres as per the preliminary notification, only 459 acres was acquired as per the final notification issued on August 28, 2000 resulting in 176 acres being de-notified.

Thereafter, the de-notification of land further accelerated. On May 7, 2001, the authorities de-notified 748 acres at Hosur Road-Sarjapur Road (HSR) Layout. "The entire scheme pertaining to further extension of the layout was dropped benefiting the land mafia at the expense of the common man who otherwise would have had the benefit of having a house site from the BDA".

This was followed by the Government de-notifying 540 acres at Banashankari 6th Stage Layout as per its order issued on August 23, 2001. He said the Government had since de-notified 340 acres for further extension of Anjanapura Layout (order dated March 4, 2002), 359 acres at Visvesvaraya Layout (October 31, 2002), 263 acres for further extension of Visvesvaraya Layout (September 10, 2003), 782 acres for further extension of Banashankari 6th Stage Layout (November 21, 2002), and 589 acres for Arkavathi Layout (February 23, 2004).

Besides, the Government had also de-notified 199 acres in various pockets of Bangalore, including at Thippasandra, Bhoopasandra, Kothanur, Kadugondanahalli, Nagavara, Nagarabhavi, Koramangala, and other places, he added.

BDA delivers rude shock to Golden Retreat residents

BANGALORE, DHNS:
The residents allege selective de-notification and suspect bribery and nepotism.
BDA delivers rude shock to Golden Retreat residents

Postmen who are serving in the northern outskirts of Bangalore after the Ring road, beyond Hebbal and Nagawara have been delivering over a hundred oblong envelopes every day for the past ten days to the residents of these areas.

These envelopes contain notices from the Bangalore Development Authority, served on thousands of law-abiding citizens residing in these well-developed layouts.

The notices asks them to show cause as to why their property should not be acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority for the formation of Arkavathy Layout comprising 20,000 residential sites in an area of 3,500 acre land.

For instance, residents of Golden Retreat which comes around the proposed Arkavathy Layout are peeved by the fact that their layout, which is well-developed has been notified by the Bangalore Development Authorityfor acquisition, while an under-developed neighbouring layout has been denotified.

Golden Retreat, which is near Nagawara, comes under Thannisandra Grama Panchayat under the revenue jurisdiction of K R Puram Sub-Registry. Land conversion has been duly made for this layout, which has 32 plots and 26 owners. Sixteen houses have come up with bank loans and 13 families are already living there.

The Bangalore Development Authoritynotices received by them for the second time recently came as a rude shock.

A retired defence officer from this layout points out that there is discrimination in de-notifying layout. Telecom layout, a fully developed layout next to Golden Retreat, has been de-notified after the residents received the preliminary notification to which they filed their objections. However, in the case of Golden retreat, which is equally developed, the residents have received final notices, despite filing objections to the preliminary notices and appearing before a public hearing where they were given assurances.

The residents point out that large vacant lands adjacent to the Ring Road have been fenced overnight and have been de-notified leading to suspicion that the land sharks are involved in grabbing the land.

The suspicion is strengthened by the fact that the fencing walls came up after the issue of the preliminary notification by the BDA in February 2003.

Owners protest against BDA acquiring land

BANGALORE, JUNE 13. The residents of Thanisandra, Vidyasagara, Dasarahalli, and 13 other villages on Sunday lodged their protest against the acquisition of their properties for the proposed Arkavati Layout by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

Hundreds of protestors, under the auspices of Nagarika Hitarakshana Samiti, gathered at Kempanna Complex on Thanisandra Main Road. The villagers expressed their anguish over the manner in which the notices of acquisition had been issued by the BDA. They alleged that the BDA had gone for acquisition of the properties in the developed villages such as Thanisandra and Vidyasagara. It was not looking at the plain lands of Bellahalli and Kolilu, they said. The protesters said the BDA had gone back on the promise to allot sites to all house owners affected by acquisition. The BDA, they alleged, had now said that sites would be allotted only to those owners who possessed sale deed and not to those who held the General Power of Attorney (GPA).

They wanted the Government to regularise the houses constructed in the area coming under the proposed layout. Farmers need to be given market rate for their land, the protesters said. The samiti passed a resolution containing all the grievances and took signatures of 3,000 participants. The copies of the resolution will be presented to the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh and the Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, on Monday. "We are not against the proposed layout. But we want the Government and the BDA to have a look at our problems," Shivakumar, a member of the Samiti, said.

Tax on property deals should be on market value recommends ICAI

Jun 17,NEW DELHI: In what could increase revenues for the government, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India on Thursday said capital gains on property deals should be on the basis of market value rather than the present stipulation of stamp duties, which are often under-valued.


Seeking repeal of Section 50C of Income Tax Act used for computation of capital gains for property transfer, ICAI said since fixation of stamp duties is a state subject, there was a tendency to fix the duty rates at higher level, ignoring the market rate of the transferred property.

Section 50C provides for adopting value of stamp duty as fixed by the state governments for the computation of capital gains for income assessees.

Observing that guideline value of stamp duties was not fixed in a scientific manner by state government authorities, ICAI, in its pre-Budget memorandum, said IT assessees in Delhi and Kerala did not face much difficulty as these states have standard guidelines for stamp duty computation.

However, in states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the stamp duty norms for evaluating property value exceeded by 50 to 100 per cent over the actual sale value, it noted. "Confusion arises when the state authorities fix higher stamp duty rates in an attempt to generate more revenues for the exchequer, ignoring the market value of a land or building," an ICAI official said.


He cautioned that Central legislation relying on state guidelines, which are not uniform, affects harmonious implementation and leads to discrimination.

Future of Housing Sector,Boom or Doom?

Future of Housing Sector,Boom or Doom?
- Questions real estate consultant siva.
Influx of people and money at the same time might help the city to grow. Study of the spending pattern of the people will also signify the growth area. Demand for a product/service arises from the purchasing power as well as the surplus income/disposable income. The housing sector is one such area where a sudden boom carried the green city bangalore to unprecedented levels. As always the trough follows the crest, many feel its time for the doom.
The major offerings from developers range from Sites to Apartments to Town houses to pent houses to Independent houses to Multi level houses to villas to resort houses to farm houses in various size, shape, color and more importantly price. Bangalore has witnessed a spurge in apartment culture and more recently, thanks to BDA affliction, Lots and lots of independent house project are booming up. This can be witnessed from the sudden up rise of independent house offerings from leading developers. Starting from Purva's Parkridge, SP Samruddi (of SP Spruthi fame), Kristal, Chaitanya, Ittina, Adarsh, all developers are offering independent villas to the growing market of bangalore. But is the boom time over?
What worries our stereo-typical middle class salaried investors and the effervescent ubiquitous real estate developers are the implementation of Kelkar committee by the new government. Even though housing market was little influenced by tax rebates, the absence of it might affect our stereo-typical society which benefits to a great extent by the income tax rebate. For example, a 15 Lakh loan for a house/apartment will qualify for a full rebate of 1.5 Lakh on interest and Rs.20,000 on principal. With an EMI of Rs.12,000 and savings on house rent of about Rs.5,000 and tax rebate of Rs.5,000, a mere Rs.2000 from one's hand will fetch a house. If Kelkar committee report is implemented, then it would be on a step-by-step reduction of the tax benefits and not a complete wipe off of the rebate from the radar. The committee advices to reduce this tax sop by Rs.50,000 every year, with a clean wipe on the third year.
The rational behind such an advice arises from the comparison of the developed nations. Unfortunately, No comparison can be made with the developed Nations of the West, USA, ASEAN or even China. India has the lowest per capita income. It’s sizeable population is below the poverty line and cannot have two square meals. It has 4% of the World’s resources and 16% of the World’s population and an adult franchise viable democracy. The other developed Countries are having very small population and much larger resources in comparison to their population.
Certainly our stereotypic society will experience greater pain. The interest limit was raised from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 1.5 Lakhs in last 3 years after lot of consideration and to provide shelter to all. Whether housing problem already over? It reminds me of “Roti, Kapara or Makan”, which is still relevant for us, Indians. After levy of tax on perks, employees can’t really afford to go for a flat, without Govt. support.
This policy helps and is helping lot of families to cherish their dreams of a house whichever way it is. One can go through the pages of history that the value of land never depreciates unless a major disaster happens. Now, it’s certain that the days of doom are near. Not for the housing sector, but for our Stereotypic society!!!

Buy Bangalore

On this blog, i intend to write "How to buy bangalore?" In true sense for people
who want to buy property in bangalore, either for settling down or to take advantage
of the rising property prices and turn it into a viable investment option.
Go Buy Bangalore!