JD(S) fires fresh salvo: BSY denotified 100-crore land

The JD(S) on Tuesday came up with yet another allegation of denotification against Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. It charged the Chief Minister with denotifying a prime piece of BDA land worth Rs 100 crore at Banashankari V Stage.

Addressing reporters, JD(S) leader H D Revanna alleged that 5.4-acre land that BDA acquired in 1994 was denotified in January 2010 in favour of a man named Basappa. Yeddyurappa ordered its denotification even though the BDA had developed the land spending the tax-payers’ money, he said.

Revanna said the Chief Minister had no power to denotify any land once the acquisition process was complete. In this case, the Urban Development department officials had advised the Chief Minister against denotification.

But Yeddyurappa insisted that the land be denotified, he said.

Further, Revanna alleged that Yeddyurappa denotified 25 guntas of land in Gangenahalli worth Rs 10 crore in September 2010. He released a set of documents to back his allegations.

In another case, a road belonging to BDA at Vyalikaval was recently denotified and sold to a firm owned by the Chief Minister’s sons — B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijayendra — at a ‘dirt cheap’ rate, throwing all rules to the winds.

The BDA has sold the road at Rs 27 per sq ft.

“This is an unpardonable act. How can the BDA sell its road? Given a chance, they (chief minister and his family) will denotify entire Bangalore in their favour,” he stated.
After selling the road, the BDA has merged it with an adjoining piece of land that is in possession of a firm owned by Yeddyurappa’s family, he alleged.

‘All files in CM’s residence’

Revanna further alleged that all Urban Development department files related to denotification have been kept in the Chief Minister’s residence. People are denied access to any information pertaining to these files.

He said he had sought information through the Right to Information Act regarding 30 different cases of denotification in and around Bangalore. But the department  replied saying all the files were with the Chief Minister. “Yeddyurappa’s residence has become a government record-keeping office. Only those who want those lands to be denotified can access it,” he charged.

Rejects judicial inquiry

Senior JD(S) leader M C Nanaiah on Tuesday said his party preferred a Lokayukta probe into the alleged scams to a judicial inquiry ordered by the Government. The Government should hand over the case to the Karnataka Lokayukta, he added.

“No purpose will be served by the judicial probe, and it cannot bring out the truth. Our party will not co-operate with the judicial probe. We believe that the exercise is meant to give a decent burial to the charges faced by the Chief Minister,” Nanaiah  stated.