Denotification: Panel to guide government

Yeddyurappa told mediapersons that the process followed hitherto to denotify land will be given up “as it has created many problems besides bringing a bad name to the government”.

The committee will be headed by the additional chief secretary, and comprise the principal secretary of Urban Development and the BBMP Commissioner. “It will consider the proposals and decide on the land to be denotified. The government would act accordingly,” explained Yeddyurappa.

Tightening act

The Chief Minister also said the norms governing allotment of housing sites under the chief minister’s discretionary quota would be tightened further, to ensure that only the deserving get the sites. “There have been a series of allegations of nepotism and partisanship in both land denotification and allotment of sites. Hence, we have taken this decision to cleanse the system,” said Yeddyurappa.

Replying to a question, he ruled out the possibility of convening an emergency session of the Legislature to amend the Panchayat Raj Act to nullify the Supreme Court order on restricting the quota to 50 per cent in the Panchayat institutions. He hinted at taking another major decision on extending financial assistance to 10 lakh Self-Help Groups (SHGs) across the State to encourage them to venture into economically productive activities.

He pointed out that loan recovery rate of SHGs was 95 per cent and the government was keen to extend financial assistance to them. The government was planning to set up a corpus of Rs 500 crore exclusively for SHGs, he said.