JOIN USMembers cutting across party lines in the Council on Thursday cautioned the State government against the misuse of Transferable Development Rights (TDR) scheme by land sharks.
Participating in a discussion on the Karnataka Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill, 2015, Congress member V S Ugrappa said that TDR had become a big scam wherein officials and politicos alike were involved. Competition to grab TDR was more than the greed to purchase land, he said.
There had been irregularities to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore in the name of TDR since 2010, he said, referring to a recent news report in Deccan Herald. He criticised the government for making the bill “difficult” to understand. Many of the provisions of the bill, introduced to revise the existing TDR scheme, were lengthy and complicated. Even advocates, at district and taluk level, will find it very difficult to understand the provisions, Ugrappa said.
BJP member Ashwathnarayana said that Bengaluru had become a TDR bazaar. If a person loses land in one area like Yelahanka, for example, and obtains a TDR, she/he is allowed to use it in anywhere in the City, including near UB City where land prices are very high. Such anomalies have to be addressed, he added.
C H Vijayashankar of the BJP suggested that a provision should be made for protecting lakes and green cover in the bill. The department should fix a time frame for the formation of layouts, he added.
Minister for Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake said steps had been taken to prevent misuse of TDR in the Bill. Besides, compensation under TDR has been increased from 1.5 times to two times of the area surrendered, he said. The Bill was finally passed in the Council. It has already been passed in the Assembly.