In J'nagar

Congress mounts anti-Akrama Sakrama protest

The BBMP’s Akrama Sakrama proposal came under scathing attack at a large protest gathering organized by Congress leaders earlier this week at the Jayanagar Shopping Complex. Speaker after speaker attacked the previous JD(S)-BJP government for harassing the common man through this Scheme. Senior Congress leaders and former corporators also joined in the protest. Here’s a bird’s eye view of why the leaders on the dais find it anti-people and what is a better alternative to Akrama Sakrama.

Former CM Dharam Singh: Why did the JD(S)-BJP government come up with a Scheme which finds no mention in its manifesto? This government was born in a resort and concluded in a resort! The 3,000-odd applications received by the government under the Akrama Sakrama scheme are not from the common man or the middle class, but from builders and rich people who have black money. The BBMP is offering loans through banks to the people but far from mitigating the problems of the ordinary public, it will only worsen their plight. The Governor and the courts should therefore immediately withdraw this scheme and bring in its place a scheme that is people-friendly and does not burden the public.

Former Minister and Jayanagar MLA Ramalinga Reddy: Under the Akrama Sakrama scheme, a person owning a 30X40 site is required to pay a fee of Rs 3 lakh approximately. Given the high cost of owning a site in Bangalore, the common man would have spent his lifetime savings to own a site. Now, where will he go to pay another three lakhs? They would be forced to sell their property and end up in the footpath. The JD(S) government made a big show of its village visits by Kumaraswamy. But eating ragi mudde and nati koli with the villagers is not going to solve their problems.

Narendra Babu: The builder who was supposed to build 10 flats constructs 20 flats violating norms and has sold the flats to the people. Now is it right for the BBMP to demand that the citizen who has bought the flat from the builder pay the penalty which could be as much as Rs 3 lakhs? When the CMCs were merged into the BBMP, people expected that they would benefit by it, but what has happened is the reverse.

Dinesh Gundu Rao: In the name of Akrama Sakrama, the BBMP is harassing the people like a Mafia. If you don’t pay up the penalty, we will disconnect your electricity and water connections, they are threatening the people. The previous regime spent its time in sticking to power, and did not devote any time for real governance and tackling the real problems of the people. Before introducing such a scheme, they could have discussed the same with the Congress, or they could have concentrated on holding Corporation elections early. They did not do so because they were afraid of facing the polls. The anti-people Akrama Sakrama does not affect a few thousands but lakhs of people and so deserves to be relooked and reworked.

The Congress leaders feared that the scheme would act as a dampener on the growth of Bangalore and slow it down. They pointed out that it suffers from many drawbacks. Any scheme that seeks to regularize violations must be friendly and the compensation package should be such that, every common man, be it, a professional, employee, retired person, senior citizen, etc should be in a position to pay the penalty. But unfortunately, compensation has not been worked not keeping this in mind. For instance, a person who has been enjoying the property for two decades has nothing to do with the guidance/market value. The current value of the property is not of relevance to him now, which he may realize only when the property is sold. Also, any regularization package should be with no conditions attached.

The above mentioned problems have indeed come in the way of the common man accepting the scheme, they said. To make it more friendly, they said it could be envisioned like the SAS scheme of property tax, under which, the people could be asked to declare the extent of violation and structure a compensation package which is reasonable (certainly not crossing 5 digits) and binding the people to build as per the approved plan. The above target can be achieved only by increasing the floor area ratio in accordance with the exorbitantly high land cost in Bangalore.

The scheme should be such that it deters a person from making any deviation in construction, and not sell his property and run away from Bangalore, they said. Is the BBMP listening?