Bangalore: BJP members continued their sit in for the second day on Saturday in the Legislative Assembly demanding a CBI probe into alleged corruption pertaining to denotification of 541 acres in Arkavati Layout of the Bangalore Development Authority.
As soon as the House resumed proceedings, Opposition BJP Leader Jagadish Shettar and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah traded charges against each other, which resulted in chaos with Opposition and ruling members trying to shout down each other. Shettar demanded that the matter be handed over to CBI as it is a huge scam involving crores of Rupeees.
He alleged that Siddaramaiah had approved issuing of denotification letter dated June 18, 2014, despite knowing that it was in violation of guidelines laid down by the Karnataka High Court for dropping land acquisition. “Siddaramaiah is making false allegations and telling a lie. When I was the Chief Minister the file recommending denotifi-cation of land had come to me in 2013. But I did not approve it as it was against the guidelines as set by the High Court,” Shettar said. “If I had approved the file, I would have done denotification before the Lok Sabha elections itself. The fact that it wasn’t done clearly makes my stand clear. It is Siddaramaiah who has approved after sitting idle over the file for the past one year,” he said. Shettar alleged that the denotification was done during Siddaramaiah’s rule in order to raise funds for the recent parliamentary elections. “It is a massive scam in which crores of rupees have changed hands. Yeddyurappa is being blamed for denotifying ten acres of land, but Siddaramaiah denotified huge tracts of lands,” Shettar alleged.
Turning the tables on Shettar, Siddaramaiah said the resolution was passed by the Bangalore Development Authority to denotify 541 acres of land and recommended the same to the government in January 2013 when the former was Chief Minister. He said Shettar, the then Chief Minister, was aware of BDA passing the resolutions in 2013 but had done nothing to stop it.
The decision to appoint Land Acquisition Officers of the BDA to identify and make recommendations on denotification was taken by the previous BJP government, he claimed. He said the denotification was as per High Court guidelines and there was nothing illegal about it. The court warned of contempt proceedings if denotification was not done in a week. “We had no option but to denotify the land.” Siddaramaiah sought to embarrass BJP by recalling denotification of 198 acres of BDA land meant for Arkavathy Layout between 2007 and 2010 when Yeddyurappa was Chief Minister. “Shettar, Yeddyurappa and co. are misleading the people. They are lying to the people of the state. They are those people who have gone to jail,” he said. The government would not hesitate to take action against violation of court’s guidelines, Siddaramaiah said. “As far as Shettar’s allegations that I have ratified denotification, I am ready for a CID investigation,” he said, rejecting the demand for CBI enquiry. The statement angered BJP members who raised their voice demanding CBI enquiry into the matter, which prompted Congress members also to raise their voice in protest. Watching the situation going out of hand, Thimappa adjourned the House to July 28. (PTI )
