Krishna rejects land denotification charge

During his government from October, 1999, to June, 2004, a total of  2,203.30 acres of land acquired by the governmment was denotified in favour of various departments, including for the outer ring road project and Karnataka Industrial Area Development (KIADB) and others, he said in a statement here.

Krishna's reaction came in the backdrop of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's statement that during Krishna's rule 633 acres of land was denotified.

Yeddyurappa, who is facing allegations of denotifying lands to a firm in which his sons are partners, today released details of extent of lands denotified in the last ten years in an attempt to defend his actions.

He dismissed as "baseless" charges levelled by former Prime Minister H D Devegowda that land belonging to "big people" had been left out and those belonging to small farmers had been notified for acquisition.

Krishna also rejected a charge by Gowda's son and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy that irregularities had taken place in allotment of "alterative sites".

The government had powers to denotify lands under acquisition, he stressed.