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.