BDA drops people friendly GIS-based portal from website

 The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has silently removed the Geographical Information System (GIS)-based web portal from its website that could prevent lakhs of property buyers from being duped and getting their houses demolished later.

The web portal ‘Drushti’ was developed by Sky Group. It super-imposed village maps and the BDA layouts on the Google Earth giving accurate details of the location of a particular village, name and survey numbers on the ground. It would give information on lakes or stormwater drains on the ground.

The portal had become even more relevant after the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bengaluru Urban district authorities and the BDA went on a demolition spree to rid lakes and stormwater drains of encroachment and, razed many buildings.
Among the properties in the line of demolition are houses in the BDA approved layouts, for being located on stormwater drains. At the time of approving the layouts, the BDA officials had not verified these details.

Akash, the proprietor of the Sky Group said he had proposed to the BDA to have this portal in its website. “The then BDA commissioner Bharatlal Meena agreed and put it on the BDA website. It was there till recently,” he said.

One using the portal had to registration by providing one’s personal email ID. It would provide information such as taluk, hobli and village names, survey numbers, roads, BDA layouts with sites, parks and playgrounds. As it superimposed maps and BDA layout plans on Google Earth, it would show the extent of encroachment of public properties.

Reacting to the removal of the portal from the BDA website, Subbu Hegde, resident of Classic Orchards on Bannerghatta Road, said, “Any scientific tool is useful to citizens. The Revenue department has digitised all the maps. Its portal Bhoomi has been very helpful to the citizens. The BBMP is also digitising properties in its limits. Similarly ‘Drushti’ was of help to prospective property buyers. Removing the tool from public domain is not good.”

The BDA Commissioner was not available for comments. The post of BDA Systems Manager is lying vacant for the past few months.