'G' sites: HC seeks fresh affidavit from BDA

The High Court of Karnataka on Monday directed the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to file a fresh affidavit in connection the contempt petition seeking action against the Authority and the State government for not complying with High Court directions on forming a committee to look into the allotment of ‘G’ category sites.

The petitioner alleged that the government and the BDA have not complied with the order of the High Court dated August 25, 2012, which directed the Authority to place all the applications and relevant documents before the committee.

He referred to the submission of the BDA which stated that applications and related documents are available and the same will be produced before the committee during the proceedings as and when the same is called upon to be produced by the committee.

The Division Bench headed by Justice D V Shylendra Kumar, refusing to accept the submission of the BDA, directed it to file a fresh affidavit by the next date of hearing. It also directed the BDA to furnish all the required documents to the committee.

The State government had filed an affidavit before the Court stating that it has complied with all its directions. The affidavit, sworn to by Chief Secretary S V Ranganath, said that a committee headed by former High Court judge Justice Padmaraj has been constituted to look into allotment of ‘G’ category sites.

The affidavit said Justice Rangavittalachar and former State chief secretary P B Mahishi are the other members of the panel and all the required infrastructure has been provided for the committee to take up its work.

Compensation ordered

The High Court has directed the State government to pay compensation to the farmers who have lost their land for Karanja irrigation project in Bhalki taluk of Bidar district within two months.

The order was passed by the Division Bench comprising Justices K Sreedhar Rao and B V Nagarathna, during a hearing of the petition filed by farmers displaced by the project.

The advocate for the petitioners alleged that the farmers who parted with their land for the project were in dire straits, since all that they got from the government was promise for the past 35 years. The State government had earlier fixed a total compensation of Rs 160 crore for the farmers.

Advocate for the State government Devdas submitted that the Revenue department was working on the amount of compensation and that the procedure would be completed within two months.