Fake de-notification: FIRs against BSY

In fresh trouble for BJP state president and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has registered two FIRs in a case of ‘fake de-notification’ of 250 acres.

The FIRs also name several senior officials of Urban Development department and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

Sources said that one Dr Aiyappa had filed a complaint in this regard with the ACB. Preliminary enquiry held by the ACB revealed that as chief minister, Yeddyurappa dropped the vast extent of land from preliminary notification allowing various bulk land owners to get change of land use. In 2008, the BDA had issued preliminary notification to acquire 3,546 acres in 17 villages under three taluks of Hesaraghatta, Yelahanka and Bengaluru Additional North.

Later, between 2008 and 2011, the state government issued 20 orders dropping the acquisition when there was no final notification.

Preliminary enquiry revealed that the applications seeking de-notification were filed in the Urban Development department and processed on a fast track. “Technically this cannot be termed as de-notification, still the Urban development department passed orders to drop 250 acres from acquisition. Moreover, there was no gazette notification issued in this regard. However, all the beneficiaries, most of them with real estate interests, immediately approached the BDA for an endorsement declaring that the particular lands have been dropped from acquisition,’’ an official said. Most of the lands thus dropped from the notification were converted for non-agricultural use, using the BDA endorsement.

In 2014, the entire acquisition process got lapsed as there was no final notification. Based on the writ petition filed by some original land owners, the High Court of Karnataka also declared the preliminary notification as ‘lapsed’.