HDK 'denotified' 193 acres of BDA land

Land scams: BJP, JD(S) engage in mud-slinging

 The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, having been on the defensive over the alleged land scams and illegal gains all these days,  on Saturday launched a fierce attack on the opposition JD(S), accusing Kumaraswamy of denotifying  about 193 acres of BDA land worth about Rs 2,000 crore during his tenure as chief minister.

The land allegedly denotified includes those acquired and reserved for the Hitech city project off Sarjapur Road. Many plots of the denotified land were allegedly bought by Kumaraswamy’s relatives.

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s Political Secretary B J Puttaswamy on Saturday released a set of documents showing the denotification of 7.36 acres of BDA land by Kumaraswamy in four different cases to benefit his relatives.

In all these cases, the then chief minister ordered denotification though the BDA had already issued the final acquisition notifications. The then Urban Development Department (UDD) principal secretary, too, had strongly opposed the move as it was illegal.

In one of the instances, Puttaswamy alleged that about 1.3 acres of land meant for the Hitech city project at Haralooru was denotified in favour of Sarasamma,  a close relative of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, on June 7, 2006. She allegedly sold the land for Rs 21.50 lakh within six months. Similarly, another 33 gunta of the Hitech city land was denotified on June 7, 2006, in favour of the original owner, who, in turn, sold it to Gowda’s relative Meghana Prabhu.

Principal Secretary to UDD Shamim Banu had raised objection to it. In her letter dated November 30, 2005, she stated: “Recently, a few denotifications in this project have been ordered by the chief minister though the department had repeatedly stressed the undesirability of doing so. Continuing with denotification will completely derail the project and we may have to take a decision that the Hitech city project need not be proceeded with which will place Bangalore city in a very poor light.”

According to Puttaswamy, Kumaraswamy denotified about 44.16 acres despite the BDA issuing final notification.

While, 90.24 acres of land was denotified in spite of opposition from the high-level committee on land acquisition and 60 acres denotified despite pending cases in courts.
Gowda’s relatives have benefited in about 20 cases, Puttaswamy alleged.

Former minister C Chennigappa was among other beneficiaries of the largesse shown by Kumaraswamy.

“The former chief minister ordered denotification of 3.08 acres at Thanisandra meant for forming a residential layout by the BDA in favour of Chennigappa. The order was issued a week before H D Kumaraswamy resigned as chief minister on October 3, 2007,” he alleged.