Bengaluru: The meeting of Kempegowda plot allottees, which was called on Tuesday under the direction of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) regarding the infrastructure in the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout (NPKL), was cut short midway due to a verbal war between the BDA and the site owners.

There was a lot of criticism from the public and opposition parties about the lack of proper infrastructure for the plot owners even after many years of allotment of plots in the NPKL Layout. This issue was discussed a lot at the RERA and government levels, and the BDA Commissioner N Jayaram was called for the meeting and hearing, but he mostly remained absent.

After that, the dictatorial attitude of the BDA Commissioner led to severe dissatisfaction at the meeting of the plot owners of the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout (NPKL), which was called at the authority’s headquarters on Tuesday to discuss the infrastructure problems of the NPKL, which has fallen into disrepair under the direction of RERA.

The NPKL Open Forum Committee boycotted the meeting in protest against the commissioner’s unilateral action, which did not listen to legitimate grievances. The delay in the phased land acquisition work for the layout is the reason for the delay.

Meanwhile, in today’s meeting, 90 percent of the land acquired for the layout has been implemented. BDA Commissioner N Jayaram told in the meeting of plot owners that steps will be taken to complete the remaining 10 percent of the work.

The phased land acquisition for the layout is causing delay in the infrastructure works. This is preventing the works from being completed as soon as possible. The press release states that the commissioner explained to the meeting that he needed time for this.

But the meeting turned into a farce in just twenty minutes of its commencement. BDA commissioner Jayaram, who spent most of the time explaining the rules of the meeting, did not even give the site owners a chance to present their grievances, a site owner who attended the meeting stated.

He explained that the Commissioner, who stopped a representative of the Open Forum who was about to speak at the meeting and asked if he was a civil engineer to question the quality of the asphalting, was a testament to his irresponsibility. The commissioner, who ignored the interests of thousands of site owners, announced that only the original site owners would be allowed to speak. NPKL Open Forum President Channabasavaraju expressed his displeasure that this was a dictatorial move to silence the voices of the legal heirs and family members of the original plot holders who are deceased, elderly or bedridden.

The dependents were present to explain the severe hardships they have suffered due to BDA’s negligence for the last nine years. The NPKL Open Forum committee, opposing this unilateral decision, walked out of the meeting and protested. The committee felt that denying the right to representation to the dependents of plot holders is against the intention of the RERA directive. NPKL Open Forum said that it will continue to fight against this injustice. This move by the Commissioner has raised serious questions about the sincerity of the BDA in resolving the problems of NPKL plot holders. The Open Forum alleged that the BDA is trying to silence the voices of the majority of the affected people by giving space only to the original owners.

The NPKL Open Forum has appealed to Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and BDA President N.A. Harris to intervene immediately to protect the interests of the helpless plotters. The forum has criticized the BDA Commissioner’s behavior, which was called for a show of force in the wake of the RERA order, as nothing but an authoritarian attitude.

There has been a lot of discussion in the BDA circle about the fact that many plotters, affected people and officials have been dissatisfied with the performance of BDA Commissioner N. Jayaram, who is retiring at the end of this month. Instead of providing journalists with a proper photo of today’s meeting, NPKL has washed its hands of it by providing a photo of the layout. This move by the BDA has given rise to many doubts.

Engineer Member Shantharajanna, Deputy Commissioner (Land Acquisition), Engineer Officers, Executive Engineers, Lawyers and senior officers of the Authority were present in this meeting.