JOIN USBDA allots site to Congress legislator at throwaway price
The Congress MLA from Afzalpur (Kalaburagi district), Malikayya Guttedar, has been allotted a site measuring 50x80 sq feet in upmarket Jayanagar at a throwaway price by the Bangalore Development Authority.
The site has been allotted to the MLA despite his wife owning a ‘G’ category site in HSR Sector III and another immovable property in Gandhinagar.
Sources in the BDA said that the property (site number 71) had been allotted to Guttedar for Rs 2.56 lakh. The present market value in Jayanagar 5th Block for a 50x80 sq ft site is Rs 2.40 crore, at the rate of Rs 6,000 per sq ft.
The MLA has been alloted the site in lieu of the one in Koramangala allotted to him in 1996 by the Legislators’ House Building Co-operative Society. The possession of the Koramangala site could not be handed over since it was located on a tank bed.
Guttedar, in his affidavit filed before election authorities on May 1, 2008, had declared that he owned a property in Gandhinagar, Bengaluru. The affidavit for the 2013 Assembly elections says that the property stands in the name of his wife, Vanitha Guttedar.
The market value of the 1,500-sq ft site, with built up area of 1,200 sqft, is declared at Rs two crore. The property is said to have been purchased in 2003-04.
However, the ‘G’ category site allotted to Vanitha Guttedar in 2003 does not figure in the election affidavits. The site, measuring 50x80 sq ft, was allotted in 2003.
Allotment norm violated
The BDA Allotment Rules, 1984, as well as the Model Bylaws of House Building Co-operative Societies, state that a person is not eligible for allotment of site if he or his family owns a site already.
“No person who or any dependent member of whose family, owns a site or a house, or has been allotted a site or a house by the BDA, or a co-operative society registered under the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, 1959 or any other such Authority within the Bangalore Metropolitan Area, or has been allotted a site or a house in any other part in the State by any other Urban Development Authority or the Karnataka Housing Board or such agency of the Government, shall be eligible to apply for allotment of a site,”states the law.
According to BDA Commissioner T Sham Bhatt, the Jayanagar property had been allotted to Guttedar since the one allotted to him earlier was located on a lake bed. He said that the Jayanagar property was previously allotted to Guttedar’s relative but not registered.
Bhatt said that the Jayanagar site was part of the 200 and odd sites which were not registered, as there were allegations of the allotments being “bogus”. He said that the BDA deputy secretary, in 1970s, did not sign on the allotment files and rendered all allotments as being bogus.
“Guttedar approached us this week and gave an affidavit stating that these sites will be regularised in future. Based on that we gave this particular site as an alternative to his allotment by the co-operative society,” Bhat said.
Guttedar is one of the legislators leading rebellion in the Congress against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The BDA commissioner said that the allotment would be cancelled if the authority receives a complaint stating that Guttedar already owns a property.