'Akrama-Sakrama' from mid-March

Bengaluru, Feb 25: The long-pending scheme for regularisation of unauthorised construction in urban areas, known as “Akrama-Sakrama”, will soon be a reality.

The State government will issue a fresh notification for implementing the scheme and is likely to give one year time from mid-March for people to submit applications.

The Urban Development Department (UDD) has proposed to allow all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), including Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), to begin receiving applications from March 20.

The existing October 19, 2013, cut-off date for regularisation is most likely to remain unchanged, said sources in the UDD.

Though the government had issued the final notification under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act in June last year, it was kept pending due to a stay order by the Karnataka High Court. The court recently gave the green signal to implement the scheme.

The Congress government is keen on giving effect to the scheme as the BBMP will go to polls later this year and it will also earn good revenue to the government.

The scheme was conceived way back in 2006. Under the scheme, violations pertaining to setback, floor area ratio, non-conversion of agricultural land and formation of unauthorised layouts and sites under ULBs will be regularised.

Violations up to 50 per cent and 25 per cent will be regularised in case of residential and commercial properties respectively.

Sources, however, said the government has amended rules for regularising setback violations. Setback violations will now be calculated on all four sides of a building separately. If violation is more than 50

per cent of the stipulated setback on any one side, then the building will become ineligible for regularisation. Earlier, it was proposed to calculate the sum total of setback violation in a building, the sources said.

Under the new rules, up to 25 per cent violation in residential buildings will attract a fee of six per cent of the total guidance value of the property (either land or built-up area) and eight per cent between 25 and 50 per cent.

For non-residential buildings, regularisation charges will be 20 per cent of the guidance value for less than 12.5 per cent violation and 35 per cent of the guidance value for up to 25 per cent violation.

Scrutiny fee at the rate of Re one for every square metre of the total plot area in case of plots in unauthorised layouts and Rs 2 per sq m of total floor area of the building will be collected, the sources said.

The UDD has submitted the draft notification to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for his approval, sources added. When contacted, UDD Secretary T K Anil Kumar said the government is still in the process of holding discussions on issuing a fresh notification.