RTI propels BDA to take steps to correct the wrongly marked boundary
1 Dec, 2013
A former officer of Indian Navy, Commander N Sharavana, was allotted 50 feet by 80 feet land by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout in 2003 for which he was issued an allotment letter, registration certificate and khata.
However, during his visit to the site in April, 2013 he found encroachment activities in the adjacent site. So, he got his site officially marked by BDA officials was not told the exact status of his site. Later on he was informed that 10 acres of land was denotified in the same layout in survey number 20 and though his site was partially in the same survey number, no part of his land was denotified. Not satisfied with the information, he filed an application with the BDA under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking accurate information about his land. After his persistent efforts to get information, the BDA replied that his land was erroneously included in the denotified area. The reply also showed that the authority had not conducted a joint survey with the revenue officials before 10 acres of BDA land was denotified.
A senior officer in the BDA's land acquisition department stated that the BDA authorities were able to identify that BDA land was denotified only after the persistent efforts of the RTI applicant. The BDA commissioner has written to the Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner to rectify the wrongly marked boundaries and return the land belonging to the BDA and the allottees.