JOIN USAmidst raging controversy over illegalities in Arkavathi Layout, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Friday charged the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) with issuing No Objection Certificates (NoCs) to the land owners much before the decision to drop lands from acquisition process was taken.
Addressing reporters, Kumaraswamy said that the BDA had issued NoCs in advance to enable the land owners or the GPA (General Power of Attorney) holders to conduct transactions. “It is illegal because NoCs have to be issued only after deletion of land. It was done as per the direction of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Illegal NoCs have been issued in all cases of re-do done during the present Congress rule,” he charged. He, however, did not release any document to corroborate his charges.
The JD(S) leader said the government was now in a fix as it has to submit all documents to the justice H S Kempanna Commission which is probing the issue. “The BDA officials with the assistance of retired tahsildar Boraiah and Assistant Commissioner Venkateshwara are generating fictitious NoCs in order to submit them before the Commission,” he charged.
He challenged Siddaramaiah to disprove his charges and claimed that he has all documents in this regard. “Mr Siddaramaiah, why were NoCs issued much before the re-do exercise? Siddaramaiah no longer has the moral right to question B S Yeddyurappa on denotification issue. He can no longer claim that he a honest man,” he charged.
Kumaraswamy said the special land acquisition officers prepared their re-do reports (to drop lands from layout scheme) at Balabrooie guesthouse and a flat on MG Road and not at the BDA office. A data entry operator in the BDA, Sharada Prasad, was given the entire responsibility of handing re-doing exercise. It is interesting that she uses Jaguar (a high-end luxury car) to come to office though her salary is just Rs 8,000 per month, he added.
He disagreed with the government’s argument that the LAOs had powers to issue orders to drop lands from acquisition process. The LAOs had powers only to inspect lands and prepare a report. They were supposed to submit the reports to the BDA and to the government.
The Siddaramaiah government has recklessly dropped lands from acquisition process under the pretext of powers to LAOs, he added.
On denotification done during his tenure as the chief minister, Kumaraswamy said he had denotified only 3.17 acres of land in Arkavathi layout. Later, Siddaramaiah rubbished all charges, saying that they are baseless.