Bangalore is one of the fastest
growing cities of India. The reasons for such a fast growth could be attributable mainly to the development of I.T. hub, pleasant climatic
conditions and better educational and employment opportunities. Because of high
influx of people to the city, there is a great demand for house and house sites
in Bangalore. This, in turn, has lead to
the steep rise in the property values here.
Building byelaws are introduced to
regulate construction activities, to prevent construction of buildings in a
haphazard manner and to provide better civic amenities. Zoning regulations are
also introduced with the same motive and to regulate the land use, control of
density of population and to develop the city in an orderly way. However, these
building bye-laws and zonal regulations are not strictly followed by the people
presumably on the ground that the restrictions imposed are nothing but
hindrance in exploitation of the property to the full extent and thereby they
construct their buildings at their will. In so doing, they do not mind to
forego certain prescribed civic amenities such as having broader roads,
playgrounds, parks and other civic amenities.
Broadly, we may classify the
violations into three categories viz., violation of Floor Area ratio, violation
of site set back and violation of plot coverage. Violation of any one of these
three violations would deprive the land owner of completion certificate.
Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R) is
prescribed separately for intensely developed area, moderately developed area
and sparsely developed area. Earlier, F.A.R. used to be high in more intensely
developed central areas in view of land values and lower F.A.R. in the suburbs
where land values are less. But presently it is on the reverse pattern and the
policy is to fix less F.A.R. in the central area to enable decongestion and
higher F.A.R in the suburbs to encourage development where the traffic and
other problems are less.
The building bye-laws prescribe for
certain set backs on sides of the
building to facilitate the people to have proper light, ventilation, privacy
and to save them from dust and traffic noise. While framing the building bye-laws,
the civic authorities also keep in mind the future land requirements for
broadening roads. It is noticed that people violate building bye-laws by way of
additional floor construction, site set back construction, and providing stair
case on the site set back area, balcony area to be converted into living rooms.
The Zonal Regulations of the
Comprehensive Development Plan of Bangalore prescribe different land uses like;
residential, commercial, land for civic amenities etc., for systematic
development of the locality. But, it is noticed that the residential buildings
situated along the main roads and the roads nearer to commercial area are
developed and utilized as commercial property. Even several industries also do
crop up in these localities in gross violation of zonal regulations. Similarly,
residential or commercial buildings do crop up in civic amenities sites meant
for parks, play grounds, schools, green belt areas etc.
If a part of the building is
constructed with deviations, the owners of such property hesitate to approach
the plan sanctioning authorities whenever they intend to put up further
construction on the property for approval of
sanction plans for the reason that deviations will be noticed during
inspection by these authorities and thereby proceed to make further
construction without the sanction plan. Such people try to develop rapport with
the concerned municipal authorities and put up additional constructions without
sanction plan.
The reason for violation of building bye-laws and sanction plans by the people is that most of the land owners/builders want to exploit their land to an optimum extent because the residential and commercial properties do fetch high return. Presently, in Bangalore there is a steep rise in land value, say Rs.5,000/- per sq.ft. on an average.
In a large number of cases,
deviations and violations take place with the active support of the officials
and the local politicians. Only in rare cases when it is brought to the notice
of the competent authority of deviations, action would be initiated by the concerned
authorities against which action the land owners knock the doors of the courts and
in many such cases courts do grant stay.
Thereupon, the building owners do enjoy the property for long period
despite violation of the bye-laws since it would take long time for the court
to dispose of the matter.
Violation of bye-laws, deviations of
sanction plan, zonal regulations etc., cannot be allowed to be continued for
long since it is an unhealthy trend. Therefore, the following suggestions may
help in curbing violations of the bye-laws etc.
The building byelaws and zonal
regulations of the Comprehensive Development Plan should be user friendly and acceptable to the
majority of the public. Further, the byelaws should not consist of too many
technical jargons but should be simple to enable the common man to understand
and follow. Byelaws should be suitable to the local conditions failing which
there would be violation of such laws.
When once user friendly building
byelaws with simplified procedure
for sanction of building plans are
introduced, there should be deterrent punishment if the property owners
deliberately deviate from the sanctioned
plan or construct their buildings without the sanction of the competentauthority. It may be kept in mind that
unless strict enforcement of the zonal regulations and building bye-laws is
carried out in letter and spirit, there is every likelihood of people violating
even the user friendly byelaws.
Construction of a building generally
takes not less than a year. During this
time, frequent visit by the concerned area engineer and supervisor to find out
whether the construction is according to sanction plan etc., would prevent
violations of the regulations by the land owners. Instead of this, the municipal authorities
conduct raids after several years of such construction putting the people to a great
hardship and embarrassment. To avoid such a situation, strict enforcement of
visit by the concerned engineer must be introduced and if any deviations are
noticed later on, the concerned engineer should be made accountable for
allowing such deviations and action initiated against him for dereliction of
his official duty.
As a onetime relief, for the
existing buildings all deviations in building bye-laws, plans and zona lregulations could be permitted with different slabs of penalty for such violations.
The higher the violation, more the penalty. Once user friendly bye-laws are
introduced, there should be no leniency whatsoever and every deviation should
be punished with severe penalty.
The building byelaws need revision
whenever there is change in the C.D.P. of the city. The committee constituted
to prepare the byelaws should comprise of not only the experts in the field but
also the different sections of the public so that the matter could get debated
from different angles before arriving at a conclusion. Thereupon, the draftbyelaws should be circulated amongst the public to solicit the views and
suggestions from people of different walks of life. The print and visual media
can play a greater role in this regard. A team of technical officials
consisting of town planners, architects, and civil engineers can be formed to
educate the people on the need for adherence of the byelaws while at the same enlightening the public of
the punishment for violations. Similarly, area committees consisting of revered
citizens and the representative of the resident’s welfare associations may be constituted
to monitor violations.
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