Purchasing house site is
the dream of a Middle class person; family. Unprecedented growth of urban
areas, due to Industrialization and consequent unending migration of rural
folk, agricultural labour for employment opportunities and professionally
qualified persons in search of greener pastures, migrate to metros, or mega
cities A case in point is Bangalore. It was at one time aptly calledas‘Pensioner’s Paradise.’ It was a pleasure to see elders slowlywalking,chanting, Sir Vishnusahasranamam, in today’s commercial hub of the citylike,Seshadripuram, Malleswaram, and Basavanagudi. Youngsters
used to play cricket on the roadsides, footpaths were so large which could be
used for learning cycling by children. Nowadays one has to walk holding one’s
breath not sure whether he can reach home safe.
This unbridled growth of
Bangalore with comparatively better income for most of the people has made
demands on housing very great. This has led to many ways, legal, illegal,
dubious, ethical or otherwise to own a piece of land and to have a shelter/roof
over one’s head. Bangalore basically was small town surrounded by number of
villages. Land Developers, who landed in Bangalore, started converting
agricultural land into residential pockets. In villages, a small residential area will be there,where houses of the farmers are situated;the houses there are given KhaneshmariNo. And the residential pocket in a Village is called
Gramathana, as distinct from village as such where agricultural land is
surveyed and given Survey No. for each piece of land. Thus, every piece of land
is assigned a Survey No.(except Kharab lands) which are classified into class
‘A’ and ‘B’, depending whether it can be made arable/cultivable, by making
certain improvements and others whose nature cannot be changed. A legal procedure has been laid downfor change of use of the land from agricultural purpose tonon-agricultural-residential purpose.
This requires an order
from the Deputy Commissioner. Purchase and possession, use of agricultural land
by Non Agriculturalists, for purposes other than agricultural farming is
prohibited in the State of Karnataka, by law However land duly converted by the
Competent Authority can be purchased for development as Residential lay-outs.
Hence, the question what is conversion of land. In simple terms, it is the
permission granted by Revenue Authorities to change the usage pattern of land
from Agricultural to Non Agricultural - Residential
or Industrial use. In and aroundcities and towns and espe- cially onthe outskirts ofBangalore, this is going on in a rapid phase. The
Government had by its various Comprehensive Development
plans, shrinking the size of agricultural land to
almost 'Nil' around Bangalore.
A
conversion Order passed by the Deputy Commissioner is a serious exercise
scrupulously followed by the Revenue Authorities, after verifying the fact that
there is no contravention of the provisions of the Karnataka
Land Laws relating to the provisions of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1961, Karnataka Land Grant Rules, KPTCL
Act, and the Land Revenue Rules relating to Green
belt. Likewiseverification is also done in respectof acquisition of anyscheme of the Government andthe Bangalore Development Authority.
Thus,
permission accorded by the Deputy Commissioner, for change
of land use deems that there is no violation of
any of the revenue rules prohibiting conversion
of agricultural land. It is also relevant to bring forth that
the burden of verification
regarding the above laws lies only on the
Tahsildar, and an applicant shall not be asked
to provide any documents for the same. The said report preparedby the Tahsildar is then forwarded to the DeputyCommissioner, with his opinion; it is only on the receiptof the opinion that the Deputy Commissioner accords permission asmentioned above.
The Deputy
Commissioner shall also verify and satisfy himself that the change
of use does not cause any public nuisance
and that the land sought to be converted are
not inconsistent with the purpose specified in the
Comprehensive Development Plan and the Outline Development Plans.
Cumulatively it appears that the land on which
permission is sought is clear as far as satisfying the
requirements of law governingconversion and revenue.
On going through the
conditions enumerated in the said
Official Memorandum, certain duties and obligations
are cast on the applicant namely the necessity
for having the Layout Plan approved by the BDA/Local
Authorities like the Panchayat, Pollution Control
Board, etc., which on necessary applications clear the
development of Layout as per the respective provisions contained in
the Act.' Any prudent buyer of land should thinktwice before investing his hard earned money inland. Revenue lands are sometimes regularized, in
Schemes like 'Akrama-Sakrama' and approved
by the Revenue Authorities,
However, if it is not regularized, a Damocles' sword
hangs on the head, any time
the title held on such 'Revenue site' is not absolute, free, marketable. In simple terms it is illegal and
the buyer of such lands will be in jeopardy
of losing the land, money, and cannot hope
for any legal remedy, like compensation.
As the
famous Doctrine 'caveat emptor' - 'Let
the Buyer Beware' goes to say, any buyer interested in
investing in land should thoroughly
examine the titles, preferably by a qualified Advocate/Attorney,
who can do a methodical investigation of title.
DB! Bank decided to sell
its Home Finance subsidiary since it also sells home loan products
and felt that offering the same products from two group entities
did not make business sense. The bank had earlier thought of merging its
subsidiary with itself but later abandoned the plan.The bank hadreceived Expression of Interest (Eo Is)from over a dozen entities fromwhich ithas now zeroed in on the above three.
DEWAN Housing Finance has
emerged as the front runner to buy IDB! Bank's home finance subsidiary, IDB! Home
Finance, having put the highest bid amongst the three short
listed bidders. The two others in the fray to buy the Pune-based
home finance Company are Tata Capital and Religare Enterprises. IDB!
Capital is acting as the advisor to IDB! Bank for the
deal.
"Interms ofpricing, Dewan Housing Finance has more weight than theother twocompanies which are in the race. However, our board will takethe decisionon whom to sell," the official said.
For more:http://www.advocateselvakumar.com
www.bangaloreadvocates.com
For more:http://www.advocateselvakumar.com
www.bangaloreadvocates.com
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