Dollars Colony

It’s a blunder that’s taken nearly 30 years to rectify and kept 300-odd families on tenterhooks. But now that the goof-up made by the state government and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) all those years ago looks set to be resolved, VVIPs who own prime properties in the plushin JP Nagar IV phase can rejoice.Residents of the posh locality have been living under the threat of demolition of their properties with the layout tagged as “illegal and encroached”, but no longer. The government is set to issue a corrigendum to clear the mess and retag the colony as ‘legal’.After much digging into survey records, the government has come to the conclusion that a “clerical error” was made with regards to survey numbers that placed Dollars Colony on the Sarakki lakebed and slotted it for demolition.For the record, Dollars Colony was originally on survey number 167 of Billakalli village and the layout was developed on the dried Lingayyakere. This lake had lost the characteristics of a water body and was excluded from the list of lakes.However, in the notification issued by the BDA during the formation of the layout in 1986, the area was recorded as survey number 19 of Sarakki village. The error did not make much difference as nobody noticed it then, and the BDA went ahead with the allotment of sites.BDA sources explain how the confusion was created. In 1995, the BDA announced the formation of another layout, Sarakki 7th phase and notified 850 acres. After preliminary notification, there was no progress on the development work and the project came to a standstill.In 2003-04, after an official inspection of the notified area, it was found that the area was already built up and there was no point in a layout – which would entail acquiring built properties, demolishing them, forming a layout and allotting sites. The then SM Krishna government decided to “withdraw the scheme”. In simple words, they dropped the layout development plan and denotified the land. Since Dollars Colony survey number 19 was a part of Sarakki village, even this area was denotified.Now, following the brouhaha over the alleged encroachment of the tank bed and demolitions carried out in the vicinity of Sarakki lake, Dollars Colony came under the scanner too. It was alleged that this layout stood on a lake bed and was denotified by the BDA. The VIP residents knocked on the doors of the powerful in the government through their Resident Welfare Association.``The survey number error created a mess and we are clearing it now through a corrigendum, a clarification stating that Dollars Colony layout was developed on survey number 167 of Billakalli village and not on 19 of Sarakki lake,’’ BDA commissioner T Sham Bhat told Bangalore Mirror.Is the layout sitting on a water bed? According to records, in 1988, the Ramakrishna Hegde government, after the submission of the Lakshman Rau committee report on the status of lakes, decided to exclude a few lakes including Lingayyakere, as the water bodies had lost their characteristics. The PWD, which was then the custodian of lakes, issued this order in February 1988 which meant that the area could be used for public purposes.However, in 1986, the government notified Dollars Colony comprising an area of this dried-up lake bed and the 1988 order gave the authorities legal powers to go ahead. Subsequently, the layout was developed, sites allotted, primarily to VVIPs under various categories and corner sites were auctioned.The area is an upscale residential colony of JP Nagar, adjacent to ring road where land prices have touched Rs 17,000 sq ft. Former BDA and BBMP commissioner H Siddaiah who is one among the elite residents of the colony says, “I purchased a site in 2004 from my relative after selling my site in Banashankari, built a house and am living here. Majority of the property owners have been allotted sites by the BDA. When the entire layout has been approved and formed by the BDA, how can it be called illegal? When the government has excluded the lake from its list and has okayed it for public purpose, where is the question of encroachment of a water body? We have been labeled sinners, criminals and encroachers. Just because we have done well in our careers, we are being targeted,’’ says Siddaiah.The who’s who list included chief minister Siddaramaiah who was allotted a 50 by 80 site in 1987 and sale deed issued in 2002. He subsequently sold the site and invested in another property.40x6050x8050x8050x8050x8050x8050x8050x8050x8050 x 8050x8040x60