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BENGALURU: Property owners in Bengaluru who have deviated from the plan approved by competent authorities will soon have to pay double the property tax .

Law minister JC Madhuswamy on Friday said the state cabinet approved a proposal to amend the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, to curb rampant violation of construction norms that have led to the collapse of many buildings.

The proposed penalty, the minister said, will apply to both residential and commercial buildings which have violated the BBMP's building bylaws. "The errant owners will have to pay twice the property tax till the deviation is corrected or the building is demolished," said the minister.

Sources said the penalty move could be extended to rest of Karnataka if the Bengaluru example succeeds.

The Karnataka government recently set up a cabinet sub-committee to launch a scheme to regularise over 75,000 unauthorised building constructions in 5,000 acres of BDA or BDA-approved layouts. Owners of these buildings are yet to pay development fee.

The cabinet sub-committee headed by deputy chief minister CN Ashwath Narayan will soon recommend ways and penalties to regularize these buildings.

An earlier scheme to regularize properties, Akrama-Sakrama, has run into legal hurdles in the past decade.

