Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Mar 18: Udupi turned into a city municipality from being a town municipality in 1995. In 1997, Udupi became a district. People working elsewhere including abroad, with the hope of finding a house to settle down in the city after retirement, acquired sites around the city. Their number is approximately 20,000. Now, because of legal hurdles, they are neither able to build the houses nor sell these sites. They have slipped from being well-to-do families to below poverty line. Many of them have become senior citizens now and are battered by the financial downslide inflicted by dwindling value of money.
Udup city municipal council (file photo)
These people had bought land that was converted for non-agricultural purposes from developers. They felt that Udupi, without problems of law and order, and with an abundance of water and electricity, is an ideal place to make their nest. They were legally registered. But because of the law governing Udupi Urban Development Authority, they are not getting permission to build houses in these sites. They blame the district administration for not coordinating the registration at the time of registration.
Till 2012, the government did not enforce law governing unauthorised layout rules strictly. As the law was enforced at once thereafter, those who wanted to build houses are facing legal hurdles. The authority has 7,000 applications pending before it. The state as a whole has about 17 lac such applications. Even though the same was decided in the high court, the case is now before the Supreme Court. The government has to find a way out.
K Raghavendra Kini, chairman of the authority, admits that people are suffering for the mistakes committed by someone else. He said that unless the Supreme Court decides the case, there is no other way out. He said that the state government has provided necessary documents to the court and taken steps for early settlement of dispute. He hoped that the case will be decided soon and the problems of the affected people including senior citizens will be solved soon.