Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra blames BDA for ‘alternative’ site fiasco

Reacting to the Supreme Court ordering the BDA on Tuesday to take back an ‘alternative’ site allotted to him, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said the BDA was at fault and he was not to blame. He said the BDA had not presented its case correctly before the Supreme Court and the court-appointed Justice A V Chandrashekar Committee.

Jnanendra said the BDA had given him an 50x80 ft site in RMV 2nd Stage (Bhoopasandra) as an earlier site allotted to him in HSR Layout was under litigation.

“Just like many public representatives, I was given a 50x80 ft site in HSR Layout under the ‘G’ category. After I made the payment, the BDA took back the allotment as it had failed to get possession of the land. I was later offered a smaller site but it was not handed to me,” he said.

He says the BDA gave him an alternative 50x80 ft site in RMV 2nd Stage after a gap of 13 years.

“The market value of this is far lower than that of the site I was originally offered in HSR Layout. The plot is in an underdeveloped area,” the minister said.

Citing the Supreme Court’s order, he said the BDA has issued a notice to him, stating it wants to take back the site.

While the BDA did provide alternative sites to many allottees in developed layouts under Section 11 (A) of the BDA Act, it could not use this provision from October 2021, when the Supreme Court ordered the BDA to dispose of sites in developed layouts only through public auctions.