The City has seen a mushrooming of housing complexes in the City over the last three years with 525 of them constructed between 2011 and 2014.
Responding to a question by BJP MLC V Somanna, Minister for forest, environment and ecology Ramanath Rai has said that as per the details available, builders have taken the State Level Environment Impact assessment Authority (SEIAA) environment NOC for 564 projects in the State.
According to the rules and regulations as per the Environment Impact Assesment (EIA) notification of 2006, any project that is above 20,000 sq meters in size needs to secure the NOC.
It is said that while 525 complexes are located in Bangalore, 19 housing complexes are in Dakshina Kannada district, 11 in Bangalore Rural district and four in Mysore.
While Rai has said that the State government does not have the complete details of all those who have not abided by the SEIAA, as they are inspected by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and the Centra Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the government is keeping tabs on the discharge of affluents in these housing complexes.
The minister said cases have been filed against 13 complexes for not abiding by the Water Act 1974. As many as 10 of these complexes have been constructed by Sobha developers, while two belong to Daya MK developers and one to Engineers Syndicate.
The Sobha Developers properties belong primarily to those in and around Iblur, Ambalipura and Bellandur village. These include Sobha Daisy, Dahlia, Hibiscus, Primrose, Carnation, Aquamarine, Lavender, Jasmine, Quartz and Mayflower apartments.
The Daya MK properties are Viveratha Magan and Santaramagan apartments in Kammanahalli village. The Syndicate Engineers property is located in Nelamangala.
While Sobha Developers have been slapped with cases under the Water Act of 1974, the Daya MK properties are facing criminal charges. Meanwhile, the Karnataka Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has issued 1,874 licences for building housing complexes in the State.