Thursday, May 21, 2009

Real Estate in Kengeri : Part 2

Continuing from my previous post, Lets talk about the powerful Land mafia thats raising its ugly head in and around Kengeri-KST.

With large tracts of agricultural lands being converted into Residential Layouts with many being legal and even more illegally, many people fell into a trap.Many people in the run to turn their dream of owning a site in Bangalore , bought sites in the many illegal layouts, turning a blind eye to the legal formalities and requirements.For years they had no problem at all.They were given water and electricity connection by the Town Municipal corporatio of Kengeri.Many paid the taxes promptly, thinking that they would get futher benifits from the municipality and lead a peacefull life, only to be shattered later.

With the land prices spiralling in Bangalore and increasing real estate activity in and around Kengeri, the real estate mafias started finding new ways to cash in on the situation, even if it meant riding the dark horse.These land mafias turned their eyes on the many illegal layouts formed in the agricultural lands.Most of these layouts were formed without conversion from agricultural use and without any layout plan approval.Many of the sites in these layouts do not have khatas in their owners name, as these are illegal layouts.So, the khatas were in the names of people who previously owned this piece of land.The land mafias cashed in on this loophole to make some quick bucks.

In one of the layouts formed in the interior of kengeri, in vidyapeetha road consists of around 30 sites, most of which were purchased by government employees and educated people.It was just an investment for them.So most of them did not bother to fence their sites or put up a small shed to show that they were in posession of the property.Most of them visted their property once or twice a year, as they were not aware of the tricks of these land mafias.Most of them had paid taxes to the municipality and some of them had khatas in their names.

One fine morning all of them came into a big shock, when they found that all the marking stones and the fences were bulldozed by some one and a huge fence covering the entire layout was put up.A shed had also come up in the layout with some goons being stationed there in case required.On enquiring about the thing , the site owners were told by the goons stationed there , that the land belonged to one person by name Anjaneya(Name changed.a local land shark) and the khatha still beared the name of his grandfather.So, being the legal heir , the entire land belonged to him.

The site owners found it really difficult to come to terms with the harsh reality.They felt helpless in front of the goondas who were hired for the purpose.After hectic phone calls , conversations and consultations, all of them decided to lodge a police complaint in the local police station.They were in for a even bigger shock, when they went to the station.

What was the big shock that was waiting for them in the Police station ? What happened to their sites?

To get get answers to these questions and many more, read my futher posts in this series...

Vrishabhavati aka Kengeri mori

Vrishabhavati or "Kengeri mori" as it has come to be known, is not a drain as many of them say.Vrishabhavati is infact the only river that takes birth in Bangalore and runs parallel to the mysore road.It has a dubious distinction of carrying the waste from the whole of the city of Bangalore.Be it industrial effluents, human waste , garbage dumps,etc , vrishabhavati carries it all.

Vrishabhavati takes birth near the Bull temple in basavanagudi and flows through major areas like guddadahalli,bapujinagar, R R nagar, kengeri and continues further until meeting the "Syanumangala" lake.It was a beatifull river once upon a time (even 40 years back) which fed the coconut grooves and other agricultural lands in its catchment area.In fact it is only because of this river , that you see so much of greenery in the outer fringes of Kengeri.

"We used swim in the river to beat the heat of the summer as school kids"-says an old kengerite."We used to walk all the way to Bangalore university campus, where the river has broad rock formations and green forests on the banks, ideal for beating the summer heat.What a beatiful river it was "-remembers an old timer.Infact some say that every day water from the river was used to perform abhishekam to the Ishwara temple in the heart of kengeri.The same was the case with the Gaali anjaneyaswamy temple in bapujinagar.It was because of that reason that the temple was built on the banks of this river.

It was in the 1970s , that a few of the industries started leaving industrial effluents one by one into the river, that it started getting polluted.This pollution was taken to great heights and in a way legitamised, when the bangalore city corporation decided to connect all the major underground sewage outlets into the river.This process continued over the years to turn this beatifull river into a drain.

It would have been so wonderfull , if this river was as clean as it was once upon a time.All the Kengerites could beat the heat by bathing in the river waters could have supported a lot more greenery, could have recharged the ground water table .But all that remains an utopian dream.As the fate had it, vrishabhavati had to be transformed into a big drain, "the kengeri mori".

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Real Estate in kengeri : Part 1

Kengeri was earlier considered as a remote town(village for that matter) , too far off from the city of Bangalore, even though it was just 16 kms away form the city of bangalore.Many of the people used to shoo away kengeri as being a remote village, often being associated with "kengeri mori".People used to say why you are staying in a forest like that.Now , all that has changed.

With bangalore becoming the IT hub of the country and real estate prices going up like anything in the urban areas of bangalore like jayanagar,vijaynagar and with the coming of the Bangalore-Mysore corridor and the developmets surrounding Kengeri,people started taking note of this little town.With the scarcity of the land within the city limits and spirraling real estate prices people started coming to Kengeri.

With large tracts of land available in the form of agricultural land around kengeri and sensing the huge demand , real estate agents along with land owners formed many legal and illegal layouts.People came in thousands and bought sites and many of them made kengeri their home after purchasing the sites.These layouts have mainly comup in the interior of kengeri like the Vidyapeetha road, kodipalya, uttarahalli road, gutte anjaneya road and surrounding areas.many houses have come up in these layouts.Rapid development has taken place in these areas with many of them complete with all the amenities like asphalted roads, street lights , underground drainage,etc.Old timers have failed to come to come to terms with the rapid development taking place in and around kengeri.

Real estate is a big business in kengeri.Many of the unemployed youth are involved in this and would like to proudly call it their profession.It is a rags to riches story for many of them .Many of the so called real estate agents who , once upon a time drank by-two coffee in the small tea stalls in kengeri , now roam around in the Scorpios and innovas.There is a complete make over in terms of their life styles and several other aspects of life , mainly their way of dressing.You will invariably find thes real estate agents in white and white with Golden rings on all the 10 fingers and thick golden chain around their neck.If you want to witness the real estate activity in and around kengeri, you need to visit and spend some time in the S .N Complex in kengeri which houses the Sub Registrar office.

In my further posts lets examine, the powerful Land mafia thats turning its ugly head in kengeri with details of one of the sensational land grabs that involved big names in kengeri....

Welcome to kengeri

I have started this blog to discuss and talk about the various aspects of kengeri and the surrounding areas.Kengeri has grown in all dimensions.Hithertho considered a small village too far off from the bangalore city, kengeri has now come to occupy an important place by being strtegically located with various engineering and medical colleges and industries.

Kengeri is expanding in all directions.Earlier , it consisted just the main kengeri town which was spread on the either side of mysore road to a depth of about 1 km and the kengeri satellite town.Slowy, the boundaries of kengeri has expanded with new layouts being coming up on the agricultural lands surrounding kengeri.All the small and big coconut grooves,flower gardens have made way for new layouts.At many places all the coconut trees are being axed to make way for these layouts.Greenery is definitely depleting around kengeri.

It has also caught the attention of politicians with many bigwigs like our CM Yediyurappa visting kengeri for the inaguration of BMTC TMC and also shobha karandlaje visiting kengeri and its surrounding areas every now and then.With the BBMP elections to be conducted within a few months all the would be councilllors are preparing for their own battle in the small turf.

Economic activity has also increased in and around kengeri.The first and foremost reason for this being, increased real estate activity in and around kengeri and the setting up of the sub registrar office in kengeri.This has given rise to a number of businesses like xerox,docoment writing,internet cafes,etc.The next reason being the strategic location of kengeri serving as a hub for the many BMTC bus routes.There is a large no of floating population here, which feed many businesses like mobile/acessory shops,bakeries ,hotels,vegetable/fruit vendors,etc.The third reason being surrounded by large no. of educational institutions and industries like toyota kirloskar, a large no of students and employees of these organistaions have made kengeri their home.These and many other have also helping build the economy of this small town.

It is in the above context that, i have started this blog on kengeri.Hope to get a good response from all you kengerites..