BELAGAVI: The resolution passed by the Belagavi City Corporation (BCC) in the general body meeting on August 27 is being largely questioned by experts. In the meeting, BCC passed a unanimous resolution to pay Rs 20 crore compensation to the land losers for the 80ft width road in the Shahapur area, which had been made without following the land acquisition procedures.
According to experts, the resolution of BCC would cost the people of Belagavi financially for many years to come. Moreover, if BCC pays compensation in one case, it is supposed to pay in many other cases too. In that scenario, it is bound to pay around Rs 150 crore to Rs 170 crore. Social workers are suggesting the authorities forget the road work and return the land to its owners to save the BCC.
According to two-time former MLA and former mayor Ramesh Kudachi, BCC must obey the court orders. However, it is supposed to make accountable the officials who made the illegal decisions and recover the amount from them.
According to Kudachi, there was an administrative period between 2019-2022 when there was no council body. During that period, the then BCC commissioner gave a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the Belagavi Smart City Limited (BSCL) to go ahead with the work. “However, there is no clarity if the NOC was given for land acquisition or the construction of the road in 2021. Still, the road has been made without following the legal procedure of land acquisition,” he said.
Ramesh Kudachi said the BCC commissioner has no power to hand over land to any agency to construct the road or to give NOC. Such powers lie only with the council body or the state cabinet. “Since the establishment of BCC, several new roads were made and many were widened. But never did BCC pay compensation from its tax collection for the land. Moreover, what was the necessity of making an 80ft wide road illegally in Shahapur, as it is not even traffic-congested area?” he asked.
Social worker Sujit Mulagund suggested to the authorities that since the road has been made illegally, the land should be returned to the landowners. By doing that, the BCC can be saved from insolvency. If not, the people of the city will face multiple problems for a long time, he sad and gave a memorandum to DC Mohammad Roshan in this regard on Tuesday.
A former IAS officer, on condition of anonymity, said the BCC council body has no powers to spend more than Rs 2 crore or more in a single instalment. Thus, the resolution of BCC has also fallen under legal scrutiny.
