A Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) committee has recommended strict action against the lessees holding Palike property who have violated the contract norms. In its final report, the committee has proposed immediate spot inspection of such properties and cancellation of lease contracts.
The property monitoring committee, headed by N Nagaraj, submitted its report to mayor SK Nataraj on Friday.
The committee is of the view that the BBMP should not encourage new lease contracts, and even when it is done, it should be through public auction. “Also, there is a need to revise the lease fares,” said Nagaraj.
The issue of misusing properties leased out by the BBMP came up for discussion in a council meeting of the Palike. After direction by Nataraj, BBMP commissioner Siddaiah on July 28, last, formed a committee to survey the properties. The committee studied 208 cases from East, West and South zones where the term of the leased properties had expired and 186 cases of existing lease period.
“During our inspection, we found that there were several files missing from the zonal offices pertaining to BBMP properties. The committee also found that there were 394 cases in just three zones. When we asked for the files, the officials first said that they don’t have them. But when asked for an endorsement for missing files, they slowly started to submit the documents,” said Nagaraj, adding that there were lot of documents related to BBMP properties which had been burnt to help lease owners who were using the property for commercial purpose.
Nagaraj said that there were more than 5,000 properties measuring about 40,09,548 sq m with a value of about Rs10,400 crore in its eight zones. The committee directed the officials to prepare a map and record the properties. “The BBMP has served notice to the defaulters under the KPP Act and has filed caveat application in the court. The zonal assistant revenue officer has been directed to collect tax from the leased properties. A name board mentioning BBMP property will be erected in all the BBMP properties,” he said.
The committee also recommended a nine-point action to protect BBMP properties from being misused. “We have submitted the survey report with some suggestions. The taxation and finance committee, the mayor and the commissioner has the right to take action against violators,” Nagaraj said.
“This report doesn’t cover all the eight zones, but only three zones — East, West and South. There are lot of properties which are yet to be identified by the BBMP,” he said.
M Nagaraj, opposition party leader in BBMP council, said that the Bible Society of India property belonged to the Palike, but due to negligence by officials, there were no documents to claim the property. JD(S) leader Padmanabha Reddy said that along with BBMP, the public should also come forward to protect Palike property.
