Bangalore: The government has stopped allotting prime residential plots in the city under its discretionary quota -- G category -- by Bangalore Development Authority, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said on Wednesday.
Responding to a question raised during zero hour in the Legislative Assembly, he said from May 19 of this year, the "entire process of allotment under G category has been stopped".
According to guidelines on issuing ?G? category sites, persons in public life with prominent contribution to society are eligible for preferential allotment of sites through BDA but it`s no secret that successive governments have sanctioned them to "others" as well, making the quota controversial.
Giving information he secured under the RTI route, Goolihatti D Shekar (independent), a former Minister, said 867 persons had been alloted G category sites in prime residential localities in the past ten years, including to journalists and "even house servants".
"Despite the High Court order of December 15, 2010, that the Government has no authority to allot G category sites, it has alloted sites to 48 persons (after the order) without even fearing that it will attract contempt of court proceedings", he said.
Shekar said each of these stray sites has a market-value of Rs ten crore, and the Government can earn an income of Rs 300 crore to Rs 400 crore if it recovers them. If government cancels allotment in the past ten years, it can get revenue of thousands of crores of rupees.
PTI
