FAKE OCCUPANCY CERTIFICATE
What would be the total number of
residential high-rise buildings in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)
limits, built during the last five years?
If the data provided by the BBMP is
anything to go by, 97 is the exact number of buildings built in the Capital
city between 2009 and 2014, which have been issued official Occupancy
Certificates by BBMP. What is more puzzling is the reply given by Chief
Minister Siddaramaiah in the Assembly session last month, confirming that no
cases of residential apartments failing to obtain Occupancy Certificates have
come to the notice of the government. However, if you are the one who is
following the real estate development in the last few years, you would know
that this number, 97, is a joke. Numerous residential as well commercial
complexes within the city stretching for about 741 km, have mushroomed in the
last five years. So, if the official number of buildings that have BBMP's
Occupancy Certificates is only 97, what about all other buildings that were
built between 2009 to 2014? The figure released by BBMP raises some serious
doubts over the actual story behind Occupancy Certificates, its relevancy and
dilution due to vague laws. What is Occupancy Certificate?
According to the
building bye-laws of BBMP, every builder should complete the construction or
reconstruction of a building for which the licence was obtained. The
construction should complete before the expiry of five years from the date of
issue of licence. Within one month after the completion of the construction the
builder should intimate the Commissioner in writing about the completion. It
should be accompanied by a certificate in certified by a registered architect /
engineer / supervisor. Along with this, the application for permission to
occupy the building should be submitted. “The authority shall intimate the
applicant within thirty days of receipt of the intimation whether the
application for Occupancy Certificate (OC) is accepted or rejected. In case,
the application is accepted, the Occupancy Certificate shall be issued in the
form given in Schedule IX provided the building is in accordance with the
sanctioned plan,” says the byelaw. In addition, OC should be given after the
physical inspection of the building by an official who has to verify if the building
has been constructed as per the sanctioned plan and has met the requirement of
building byelaws. This includes inspections by the Fire Service Department
wherever necessary. In Bengaluru, BBMP and BDA issue Occupancy Certificates.
Fake OCs issued by BBMP officials? BBMP ruling party leader N R Ramesh, the
corporator of Yediyur ward, who smelled a foul play in Occupancy Certificate
episode, calls it as nothing less than a scam. “There is no doubt that more
than 97 high rise apartments were constructed in BBMP between 2009 and 2014 and
several of them have been occupied in the absence of Occupancy Certificate or
perhaps with the fake OC. It appears as though the buyers of the flats were
unaware of the absence of Occupancy Certificate or were provided with fake
OC’s,” he alleges. N R Ramesh has also filed a complaint against unnamed
officials, with Bangalore Metropoiltan Task Force (BMTF) police, where he
alleges that there are more than 30,000 buildings that have come up in the city
since 2009, but BBMP does not have records of plan sanctions for all these
buildings. There were only 1300 plans sanctioned, 350 Commencement Certificates
and 95 Occupancy Certificates issued between 2009 and 2014 according to BBMP
which suggests foul play in the issue of plan sanctions and other certificates,
says Ramesh. He doubts that Occupancy Certificates issued to the buildings
other than the official 97 high rises would have been fake. He also suspects a
revenue loss to BBMP, as the suspected fake certificates would have been issued
after pocketing money from the building owners but not remitting the same to
BBMP accounts, which is why no record exists with the BBMP. Case against BBMP
officials has been registered under section 441 of KMC Act, and IPC sections
420, 409, 468 and 217. 'There may be fake OCs, we're yet to trace them' BBMP
Commissioner Lakshminarayan, when asked about updates in the case of fake OCs,
said he has referred the case to Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner
(TVCC) and they are looking into the matter. Meanwhile, the respective Join
Commissioners too were asked to submit a report. So far, only one case of fake
certificate has come to light. He said he could not recall the name of th
building. He is yet to receive the final report from the TVCC and Joint
Commissioners. "I will not claim that all cases are genuine. There may be
cases of fake OC and buildings without OC. But we could not trace them
yet," Lakshminarayan added. Meanwhile, a senior official from the town
planning section, on condiction of anonymity, refuted such charges and assured
that the department would go for spot inspection if such cases are brought to
the department’s notice. “There have been some instances of the apartment
builder violating building bye-law and we have ensured that OC is issued only
after the deviation is corrected,” the officer said. The case, however, does
not include the Occupancy Certificates issued by Bangalore Development
Authority. OC must for utility connections in high rises There have been cases
of the flat buyers registering and occupying the house even before obtaining
the Occupancy Certificate, mostly because there was no strict law in place that
prohibited buyers from occupying the house. A house would get permanent water,
UGD and electricity connection even before it is certified to be fit for
occupancy, by producing a proof of ownership or occupation of premises (latest
khata, sale deed, property tax paid, sanction plan, architecture plan, signed
by the civil engineer and / or route sketch). Now this has slightly changed.
Recently the Urban Development Department issued a circular making it mandatory
for people to produce Occupancy Certificates to BESCOM and BWSSB in order to
get electricity and water connection. BESCOM Executive Engineer Shanthamallappa
said that the department was providing permanent electricity connection to the
buildings even in the absence of OC and the new rule has been implemented from
December 1, 2014. In yet another development, while addressing mediapersons on
January 12, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar said that the new circular will not
be applicable for housing units having a built-up area of below 8,000 sq ft and
building height of less than 50 ft, which means the rule is applicable only for
high rises. BWSSB has already displayed the terms and conditions, which say
that buildings that have fourth floor and more have to submit occupancy
certificate. Plan sanction is a must for all the buildings to get water
connection.
BESCOM website still displays the old form where it asks the owners
to produce either “Proof of Ownership of the premises or Proof of Occupancy”,
which means BESCOM hasn’t yet officially announced that OC is mandatory.
However, if the accusation of fake occupancy certificates turns out to be true,
there may not be much coming out of the new rule that makes OC mandatory.
Unless the government tightens the noose and puts a full stop to fake occupancy
certificate, there is not much meaning to it. Here's the list of 97 buildings
that have official Occupancy Certificates issued by BBMP between 2009 and 2014.
