An unmaintained vacant plot at Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR
With the deadline for clearing vacant sites ending on August 22, Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda directed civic officials to identify vacant plots requiring cleaning, serve notices to owners and take up the cleaning work where owners fail to comply.The costs will be recovered by adding it to property tax. It can vary between ₹25,900 for a 20X30 plot to ₹1,74,700 for a 50X80 plot. The drive will begin from August 27 and will be intensified from August 31. The Minister said only around 20% of owners in some areas had complied with the deadline. “Cleaning of vacant plots cannot be left to chance. Wherever the civic body has to undertake the work, the cost should subsequently be recovered through the property tax,” Mr. Byre Gowda said. Members of the public can also flag empty sites that are not cleaned. Mr. Byre Gowda directed officials to develop a feature on the GBA’s “Clean It” app to allow citizens to report vacant plots that have not been cleaned. Civic officials have been asked to get prepared to undertake the cleaning drive across the city.The Minister directed officials to make before-and-after video documentation with geo-location mandatory for every vacant plot cleaned by the civic authorities. He also said that waste and debris generated during the cleaning process are not dumped along roadsides or on other vacant land and are sent to designated disposal locations. The entire operation must be recorded on the Clean It software end-to-end, he added. Published - August 24, 2026 09:37 pm IST
