The new rule by the BBMP to control building violations might just work, but real estate developers are not happy! They complain, rightly so, that it will create one more layer of approvals that could lead to corruption and unnecessary harassment of law-abiding builders and citizens. The realtors point out that BBMP engineers and officials are aware of every construction activity across the city, but choose to look the other way when there is a violation.
It’s a novel idea to curb unauthorised constructions that are mushrooming everywhere in the city right under the so-called watchful eye of the BBMP. In future the ground floor of a building with four floors above will have to be registered with the BBMP and will be returned to its rightful owner only after the civic agency is satisfied that there are no deviations from the sanctioned plan in the structure.
As expected, the move has not gone down well with the builders’ fraternity, which warns it will only result in harassment of honest builders and buyers and impact the cost of apartments for sale in the city.
“With the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act coming into force in the next one month, there was absolutely no need to create one more authority to harass buyers. RERA is the ultimate authority and will create a level playing field for all builders. Those who cannot comply with it will be eliminated. The BBMP’s move is redundant in the face of this and will only create an inspector raj and a bigger money- making avenue for its officials,” stresses secretary of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association (CREDAI), Suresh Hari.
Calling the plan “regressive,” he goes on, "What if the builder is not able to persuade the BBMP to release the ground floor registered in its name for various reasons? Then it will affect not only him but also the buyers, who may have to shell out more. The CREDAI will write to the government and the BBMP explaining the repercussions of the proposed scheme and ask for it to be repealed,” he adds.
Pointing out that even today it’s either the BBMP or the BDA which issues the sanctioned building plan, Mr Hari says their officials are usually fully aware of how things play out on the ground afterwards. “No construction can take place without the knowledge of the ward engineer or junior engineer across the 198 wards in the city. But the authorities choose to turn a blind eye to the deviations, if any, for reasons best known to them,” he regrets, clearly worried that giving the BBMP a bigger handle to arm- twist the builders may not help anyone, except perhaps its own officials, who may use the situation to their advantage.
Let’s not rain on Palike’s parade: Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO, Janaagraha
BBMP’s budget 2017-18 is different. Firstly, its outlay is Rs 100 crore lesser than the previous budget’s, which is rare. Secondly, at 73 per cent budget fulfilment in 2016-17, it comes on the back of the best performance of a sitting BBMP council in the last several years.
Yet budget 2017-18 is ambitious. It projects an increase in grants by Rs 1,000 crore and in own revenues by Rs 1,500 crore besides presenting revised estimates of receipts for 2016-17 of Rs 6,800 crores.
While the state government has been generous in its grants over the last few years, they cannot be taken for granted. Further, increase of own revenues by Rs 1,500 crore implies a 50 per cent increase, which defies past trends that indicate average annual growth rate of 35 per cent.
On the expenditure side, the single biggest concern is the absorptive capacity of the BBMP. Does the BBMP have on its rolls an adequate number of well qualified engineers and specialists, who can ensure that the capital expenditure of Rs 6,000 crore is well spent?
The additional concern is the legacy of Rs 1,400 crore of loans and a large balance of pending bills although it has done well in 2016-17 by repaying loans of Rs 622 crore and pending bills of over 1,100 crore.
Overall, budget 2017-18 is not a bad one going by BBMP's track record. But not bad is not good enough. As they say, one cannot cross a ravine in three steps, one needs to leap. BBMP needs a couple of “leap” year budgets to get past the headlines of potholes, garbage and lakes on fire.
The state government needs to devolve more revenue and powers to the it and bring it under KMABR 2006.
Achieved! only 50.03% of last year’s budget
You still see them everywhere in the city - pothole -filled roads, incomplete projects, roads crying out for a fresh coat of asphalt, and overflowing drains – despite the many promises made in the BBMP's previous budget, which it has clearly not been able to keep.
The evidence is only too visible despite its claims to the contrary. In fact only 51.03 per cent of promises made in the last budget have seen the light of day.
With its plans to develop the city’s old and dilapidated Russell, Johnson and K R markets and create multilevel car parking in the city, still in cold storage, its anybody's guess whether the BBMP's latest promises to add more TenderSure roads to the city and develop high density corridors will see the light of day either.
But the cash- starved agency has gone ahead and presented yet another budget with an outlay of Rs. 9241.05 crore for 2017-18, which civic activists believe may be inflated as well.
Says Mr D S Rajashekar, president of the Citizens' Action Forum, "BBMP is like any business organisation. It needs proper planning, allocation of funds and auditing. But it seems to be lacking in all these aspects going by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which has highlighted several discrepancies in the way it manages its affairs. If my income is Rs 1000 and I plan to spend Rs 10,000, from where will I get the Rs 9,000 I don’t have ? This is the way the BBMP functions every time. It announces an inflated budget with big projects, which are not finally executed."
Deploring that only 51.03 per cent of the projects from the previous budget have been implemented, he claims the ruling Congress is also hiding spillover work of previous years which stands at a whopping Rs 11,037 crore.
"When the BBMP uses taxpayers’ money for all its projects, it is its duty to inform the people how and where their money is used," the activist underlines, supporting BJP city president and former councillor, N R Ramesh's suggestion that the BBMP’s finances must be audited every three months on the lines of the Mumbai corporation.
