Nearly 50 per cent of the private residential and commercial properties in Bangalore have not been assessed for property tax and are therefore illegal structures, according to official documents.

The lukewarm response to the Sakrama scheme of the State Government by encroachers and violators is rather surprising.

The owners of unauthorised constructions have donned the robes of victims and hope that their protests and court action will pressure the Government to waive the penalty and betterment charges and issue regularisation certificates to them.

Despite the deadline for the Sakrama scheme drawing to a close on Friday (as mentioned under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act), the response has been poor. Sources in the Law Department told The Hindu that it would not be easy for Governor Rameshwar Thakur to extend the deadline as it was written into the legislation. A change could be brought about only through an amendment to the legislation and this was an extremely difficult task at the present juncture since the authorities here had to first approach the Union Ministries of Law and Urban Development. This exercise would take a long time.

A preliminary survey conducted by various wings of the Government prior to the launch of the Sakrama scheme showed that of the 13.84 lakh private properties in the jurisdiction of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike only 6.16 lakh properties had been assessed for property tax. The number of unauthorised structures which could be permitted for regularisation under the Sakrama scheme had been estimated at around six lakh. While the number of unauthorised residential and commercial buildings has been estimated at around 5.5 lakh, the BBMP has received around 4,000 applications. Source: Hindu

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