Owners of unkempt sites to face music

BENGALURU: Grappling with the rise in the number of blackspots across the city, the

BBMP

has decided to penalise owners who have failed to keep their vacant sites clean.

This is part of the move to fix responsibility on the site owner to maintain his/her property by ensuring that it doesn’t turn into a dumpyard. The BBMP is planning to issue a formal order in the coming week and the crackdown against errant site owners will commence.

BBMP commissioner

N Manjunath Prasad

said apart from penalising, the civic agency will write to the

Bangalore Development Authority

(

BDA

) to cancel allotment of sites to those who have kept it vacant for a longer duration.

“The BDA itself penalizes site owners who have left the site vacant for a certain period of time. We want them to consider cancelling the allotments of such sites as leaving it vacant for such a long period implies that the owner has no need or use for such a plot,” he said.

He said the BBMP has the mandate to clean the site of garbage and noxious vegetation and pass on the cost to the site owner in the form of property tax or under the head of ‘arrears of land revenue’.

“The owner has a responsibility to maintain the site properly. It should not be lying vacant and become a hub for anti-social activities. Depending on the size of the plot and the type of labour and work to be employed, the cost will change. We will start by issuing them a notice alerting them of the problem. If they fail to act within a certain period, we will clean it and penalize them accordingly,” he said.

BBMP had made similar attempts twice in the past 10 years, but in vain.