Three panels, but no word yet on illegal allotment of BDA sites

Politicos unwilling to undo wrong as they are the major beneficiaries

Politicians do not seem to have a subject dearer than getting or allotting a Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) site in violation of rules.

Since 2010, the State government has formed one judicial commission and two committees to find illegalities in allotment of ‘G’ category of BDA sites, but to little avail.

The Siddaramaiah government, on February 3, 2015, formed a three-member committee under Justice (retired) A M Farooq to go through the High Court ruling on ‘G’ category sites, which were allotted as per the chief minister’s discretion, and recommend the rules to be followed.

The committee was given six months to complete this task. But it hasn’t even begun its work.

Retired IAS officer M K Shankaralinge Gowda was made a member of this committee, but he never assumed office and quit after becoming chairman of the Karnataka Electricity Regulation Authority. He was replaced by retired IAS officer Subhir Hari Singh. The third member is Justice Srinivas Reddy.

A source in the Urban Development Department, which issued the notification on the committee’s formation, said the panel was given office space in the Coffee Board of India building only recently.

The committee will start its work in a week. Three chambers are being readied for the members, and 10-12 supporting staff would be provided. Once the office is opened, the committee will ask for a year’s time to complete its task, the source added.

As many as 313 people who got sites under the ‘G’ category will have to appear before the committee and file affidavits on how they got them. The committee’s main task is to find out whether the beneficiaries have one or more sites and whether the allotment is as per the rules.

First panel
The exercise of probing illegal denotification of land and illegal allotment of sites by the BDA began in November 2010 when B S Yeddyurappa was chief minister. He had formed the Justice B Padmaraj Commission of Inquiry.

The commission was asked to probe into illegalities in denotification of land by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) and urban local bodies. Its terms of reference included “enquiring into illegalities in the matter of allotment of G category sites of BDA.”

But the commission could not work though it existed for a year. MLA Y S V Datta had moved the High Court, questioning the constitution of the commission.

Its office remained opened in the Vikasa Soudha but the staff were without work. When the commission sought extension of its term for another year, the then chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda did not see “any useful purpose” for it. Eventually, the commission was terminated.

In 2013, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah formed a committee under Justice B Padmaraj to probe into illegalities in the allotment of ‘G’ category sites. Other members of the committee were Justice Rangavitalachar and retired IAS officer P B Mahishi.

The committee submitted its report to the government in 2013, but it has been kept under wraps. The committee is said to have recommended that the government cancel and reclaim the 313 sites allotted under the discretionary quota from 2004 to 2011 as all the allotments were illegal. But the government isn’t ready to accept this as most beneficiaries are elected representatives.

Setting aside the report, the government said the committee went “beyond its jurisdiction” and gave recommendations that were not sought. The government later formed the Justice Farooq committee on the ‘G’ category sites.