JOIN USVIP fraudulent acquirers of BDA sites are legion
Several Cabinet colleagues of the chief minister and MLAs of both the ruling BJP and the Opposition parties, too have acquired BDA sites by producing similar false affidavits.
Revenue minister Karunakara Reddy, Health minister B Sriramulu, BJP MP Janardhana Swamy have all been allotted sites, though they own properties in the City.
One of the objectives of the BDA is to provide shelter to those who do not own property in the Bangalore Metropolitan area limits. The rule is applicable even to those who get sites under ‘G’ category, the chief minister’s discretionary quota. An applicant needs to file affidavit declaring that she/he owns no property in the City. Applicants are ineligible if their family members or dependents own a site or house in the State capital.
Yeddyurappa allotted BDA sites to 191 candidates between June 1, 2008, and August 17, 2010. Sriramulu was allotted a 50X80 ft site in OMBR Layout. According to the affidavit of assets and liabilities he filed with the Election Commission while contesting for Assembly elections in 2008, he owns an apartment of 2,652 sqft worth Rs 1.1 crore in Bangalore.
Karunakara Reddy, in his affidavit before the EC, declared that he possessed non-agriculture land in Bangalore worth Rs 5.8 crore. Regardless, he was allotted a 50X80 ft site in RMV II Stage.
Chitradurga MP Janardhana Swamy owns a house and a flat in Bangalore. But the Chief Minister allotted him a site measuring 50X80 ft in RMV II Stage.
BJP MLAs H Halappa, M Chandrappa, Hemachandra Sagar, Satish Reddy, S R Vishwanath and Aravind Limbavali too were allotted BDA sites despite owning properties in the City.
When Deccan Herald contacted some of them to know if they too had surrendered their sites in the wake of the controversy over the false affidavit by Raghavendra to acquire a site, they said they were not alone in securing a site thus.
Sagar abruptly cut the phone line when this reporter queried him on the issue. Hartal Halappa retorted “this is not the right time” to respond to such matters.
Filing false affidavits is not restricted to the BJP leaders alone. Many in other parties also have filed similar affidavits. A Manju, Congress MLA from Arkalgud, has two houses each worth Rs one crore in Bangalore. However, he has been allotted a BDA site in Anjanapura.
The BDA charges only Rs 215 per sqft. Those who get a site measuring 50X80 ft pay a meagre Rs 8.6 lakh. But the market value is in crores of rupees. Recently, Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje stated she borrowed Rs 3.5 crore from a bank by mortgaging her BDA site located in a prime locality in Bangalore.
B Shivakumar, an RTI activist, demanded that the BDA initiate criminal proceedings against those who have filed false affidavits. “Allotting sites to the people’s representatives is not fair. They get sites in prime localities, while lakhs of people wait for decadesfor a site,” he said.
BDA can book a case
Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s son B Y Raghavendra may have surrendered a BDA site allotted to him and written to the BDA commissioner to cancel the allotment. But the process of surrender will be complete only if the registration of the site in the possessor’s name is cancelled at the sub-registrar’s office and the Authority returns the amount paid for the site. In the case of Raghavendra, the BDA need not have to repay the amount because he had grabbed the site by filing a false affidavit. The BDA can even book a case against him.
A long wait for Acharya...
Higher Education Minister V S Acharya had been trying to get a BDA site ever since he got elected to the Assembly in 1983. But he succeeded in his attempts only after the BJP came to power in 2008. Though he had paid for the site, the allotment sanctioned by Yeddyurappa is enmeshed in a legal battle. The Minister is yet to get possession of the land.
In the line
Some of the BJP leaders who got BDA sites by submitting false affidavit
*G Karunakara Reddy, Revenue minister
*B Sriramulu, Health minister
*Janardhana Swamy, MP, Chitradurga
*H Halappa, MLA
*M Chandrappa, MLA
*Dr Hemachandra Sagar, MLA
*Satish Reddy, MLA
*S R Vishwanath, MLA
*Aravind Limbavali, MLA