JOIN USArkavathi turns messier: Land meant for officials denotified
As Arkavathi Layout remains mired in the denotification controversy, it has now emerged that as much as 22 acres and 19 guntas of land in Jakkur village under Yelahanka hobli was omitted from notification to benefit Bangalore Metropolitan House Building Co-operative Society, a housing society meant for IAS and IPS officers living in Karnataka.
On July 18 2014, when the final notification for the re-do scheme of Arkavathi Layout was issued, the land meant for the society was deleted in survey numbers 91/1A, 91/B, 91/4, 92/1, 93, 94/1, 94/1, 94/2, 94/4, 94/5 and 94/6A and B. But the land belonging to farmers in the adjoining survey numbers has been notified.
The land in survey numbers 91/1, 91/2, 91/3B, 91/4, 92/1, 93, 94/1 and 94/2 has been included in Arkavathi Layout.
Many portions of this land are in the same survey numbers—both for the layout and the society—but one has been deleted and the other not. While survey number 91/1A with an extent of two acres has been deleted, the adjoining survey number of 91/1 with an extent of 4 acres and 03 guntas has been included in the re-do scheme.
As per revenue records, the entire expanse of 22 acres and 19 guntas handed over to the co-operative society was acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in the name of forming Arkavathi Layout. But this land was dropped from acquisition and eventually deleted from the recent re-do scheme for the layout.
Now, a complaint has been lodged with the Justice H S Kempanna Commission, which is probing into cases of land exclusion in Arkavathi Layout. It has questioned the “selective” deletion by the BDA.
“Why is the government selective in its acquisition and deletion? While the SLAOs (Special Land Acquisition Officers), who deleted the land from the re-do scheme of Arkavathi Layout, demanded bribe from farmers, why were bureaucrats given land without it being considered part of Arkavathi Layout,” asked Y S Narendra Babu, the complainant.
According to the complainant, while the Supreme Court had ordered the BDA to consider the land status as of 2004 when the preliminary notification was issued, how was the society kept away from the re-do case. The BDA handed over all the sites and its ownership on the MCHS Layout before 2010. The MCHS started developing the layout a year later.
Meanwhile, the Justice Kempanna commission has said it had no role to play in the cases of land deleted for the MCHS. “Our mandate is to go into the details of the 983 acres of land deleted from the Arkavathi Layout re-do scheme. If the land meant for the society is part of these 983 acres, we can go ahead (and enquire into it). But we need to ascertain whether the land deleted for the society comes under our purview or not,” said Srivatsa Kedilaya, secretary of the commission.