JOIN USHC notice to former CMs on illegal denotification of land
The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday issued notices to former chief ministers B S Yeddyurappa and H D Kumaraswamy in connection with a public interest litigation petition on illegal denotification of lands in the City.
A Division Bench comprising acting chief Justice K Sreedhar Rao and Justice Abdul Nazeer issued notices also to the Karnataka government, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The petitioner Jayakumar Hiremath has sought the directions of the court for a CBI inquiry into instances of denotification and allotment of plots by BDA between 2007 and 2012.
A CAG report tabled before the Legislature detailed 126 instances of denotification totalling 212.39 acres. “The report reveals that the denotifications were made against law and against the official’s notes of the authority concerned by totally misusing their position and authority for wrongful gains. The developed lands have also been denotified causing immense loss to the public exchequer which may run into several thousand crores of rupees,” the petition stated.
The petitioner further said that the sample of denotification cases covered by CAG was only 40 per cent. However, the CAG had opined that the pattern was same in all the cases of denotification and as a result, public interest had been hurt.
Misuse of CA sites
Further, the petitioner has also outlined the misuse during the allotment of civic amenity (CA) sites by BDA.
“The allotment of various categories of sites by BDA was not consistent with rules as ‘G’ category sites had been allotted to ineligible persons; allotment of alternative sites had witnessed several irregularities; CA sites had been allotted directly without notifying these to public and several unauthorised concessions had been extended to the allottees of CA sites.”
The petitioner has also charged the BDA with ineffective management of CA sites as the leases of many CA sites had not been renewed and a large number of sites and parks had been encroached upon.