JOIN USKIADB chief 'bent rules' to allot land to TN firm for a song
A complaint filed with the Lokayukta police alleges that Chakravarthy Mohan, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), “illegally” allotted an industrial site in Peenya to a Tamil Nadu-based company at a throwaway price.
The site in Peenya Industrial Area was to be allotted by auction, but the CEO allotted it to Venkateshwara Engineering Works by circumventing auction rules, a man named Dinesh Kallahalli has stated in his complaint to the Lokayukta Superintendent of Police (Bengaluru City), Sonia Narang.
According to the complaint, the firm had filed an application on November 6, 2013, requesting the allotment of a site between a road and plot number 480 (C) in Peenya 4th Phase. “According to rules, developed industrial plots which are vacant will have to be allotted by public auction. In this regard, the KIADB had also issued a circular. Flouting all rules, however, the KIADB CEO allotted 2,300 sq ft at a meagre Rs 450 per sq ft. When a section officer put a note that prime developed land could not be allotted without auction, the CEO suspended him and went ahead with the allotment,” Kallahalli alleged in the complaint.
The KIADB circular, issued in July 2013, stated that a board meeting had decided to allot vacant plots available in all the developed industrial areas by public auction considering the value of the land and the development of the areas. The officers concerned were also directed to strictly adhere to the board’s decision. The complainant claims that the land allotted to Venkateshwara Engineering Works was valued at Rs three crore but the KIADB allotted it for a fraction of that sum, Rs 3.20 lakh. This amount is 30 per cent of the total allotment price: Rs 10.35 lakh. The allottee has to pay only 30 per cent initially and the rest by the completion of the allotment period.
“The allotted plot had a pump house developed by the KIADB between plot numbers 480 (B) and 480 (C). The file notings prior to the allotment clearly stated that such an allotment would be in violation of the board’s own decision and the circular issued thereafter. Industrialists from Karnataka had been waiting for an allotment of the land for 20 years. But the KIADB allotted the plot to Venkateshwara Engineering Works within six months after it placed a request.”
Narang confirmed receiving the complaint but said she could not disclose anything about it “but we are looking into the charges.”