K'taka to regularise illegal buildings in B'luru to raise funds

A fund-starved Karnataka government would regularise all unauthorised buildings and layouts across Bengaluru to raise resources, said Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Friday.

"We have decided to regularise all illegal buildings and layouts in Bengaluru to raise funds and make their owners pay for all facilities, including power and water they get without paying any betterment charge," said Yediyurappa in a statement after a cabinet meeting.

According to the state revenue department, Bengaluru has 2.93-lakh unauthorised buildings and layouts, with civic amenities like roads, parks, drainage, power and water for which their occupants have not paid betterment charges.

As per an old survey, 35 lakh buildings and layouts in cities and towns across the state are also unauthorised or illegal without paying betterment charges to the state government for years.

"The total number of illegal buildings or layouts across the state would have doubled by now due to explosive growth of cities and towns and regular migration of the people from rural to urban areas for education, jobs and higher income," said the statement.

Owners of illegal residential or commercial buildings in cities and towns beyond Bengaluru have been paying more taxes than their counterparts in the state capital, noted the statement.

"Though the law permits defaulters to pay up to 6 per cent penalty for buildings with 50 per cent violation of sanctioned plans, the government can levy up to 25 per cent of the market price," said the Chief Minister.

The meeting has directed the urban development department to frame new guidelines for regularising unauthorised properties after studying how other states in the country have addressed the issue. IANS