Govt to regularise 12 lakh illegal houses

Bengaluru: It is expected that the Akrama-Sakrama regularisation scheme to regularise houses built illegally on revenue land across the state including Bruhat Bengaluru MahanagaraPalike (BBMP) will be implemented soon. Preparations are being made to regularise houses built on unconverted revenue land, unapproved layouts, and buildings without plan approval by levying fines.

After a decade and a half legal struggle, the Akrama-Sakrama scheme is coming out of the way, and the government is ready to speed up the legalisation process of approximately 12 lakh properties, including around 5 lakh houses under the BBMP limits. However, properties with an area of more than 2400 sq. (40×60) and commercial buildings are completely excluded. It is estimated that due to the implementation of this scheme, revenue of Rs 20,000 crore will be collected in the form of penalty charges for the state exchequer.

Informing the media persons at Vidhan Soudha, Revenue Minister R Ashok said, "A large amount of revenue will flow into the exchequer from Akrama-Sakrama, also the welfare of the poor and middle class will also be protected."

Our Bengaluru Foundation is withdrawing its petition from the court in response to the request made by the state government not to hinder the dream of the poor and middle class people to have their own roof. This will vacate the injunction issued by the Supreme Court.

The government has agreed to the foundation's two conditions that houses and properties above 2400 square feet should not be encroached upon and commercial buildings should be excluded from the scheme. The government wants to implement the scheme as soon as possible in view of the upcoming elections, which the poor and middle class people have been waiting for almost 15 years. As soon as the Supreme Court stay order is lifted, the government has decided to file the application again after setting the amount of penalty fee.

Along with BBMP, a plan was made to regularise the estimated 12 lakh illegal properties in various urban areas of the state. Efforts were made in this regard during the previous BJP, Congress and coalition governments but were not implemented. Now the legal problem is being cleared and the green signal has been given for the implementation of the project.