BDA illegally denotified 212 acres, says CAG report

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has observed that the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has irregularly denotified 212 acres and 39 guntas of land and, allotted sites of various categories including the ‘G’ category in violation of the rules between 2007 and 2011.

The irregular allotments, wherever made, should be reversed, it has recommended to the government.

The CAG report on ‘Denotification of land by government and allotment of sites by Bangalore Development Authority’ was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday by Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar. The performance audit was conducted between February and July 2012 covering the period 2007-12. The audit sample covered 40 per cent of the 126 cases of denotification.

The report also pegs the value of BDA land which has been encroached upon at Rs 24,075 crore. This has been calculated on the basis of the highest bid obtained from auction held during the last five years.

Of the 149 layouts formed, details of land audit conducted in respect of only 13 layouts had been furnished to audit. Scrutiny of the available information showed that land to the extent of 1,039 acres had not been utilised for formation of sites as the same had been either built up or encroached upon in 13 layouts formed between 1969 and 2002, the report said.

Denotification

Once land denotified for public purpose has been taken possession of under the Section 16 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act, the government has no powers to withdraw the acquisition. Such land can’t be reconveyed to the erstwhile land owners, the report said in the opening chapter, to explain how a series of illegalities have been committed by the BDA while denotifying and allotting sites.

The government had constituted a denotification committee for reviewing every case of denotification in and around Bangalore.

The committee had to recommend to the government the appropriate action to be taken. However, the government denotified 610 acres and 16 guntas during 2007-12 without referring it to the committee, the report said, while explaining how the rules were violated.

There was no denotification during 2011-12, the report said. In case of layouts, the government denotified 610 acres and 16 guntas which had earlier been notified for acquisition by the BDA for the formation of layouts. The denotification committee was bypassed in all these cases.

Meanwhile, there is no mention of names of  individuals - either politicians or officers - who were responsible for these irregularities. The entire report has been hosted on http://agkar.cag.gov.in