Question CM over Arkavathy, panel told

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should also be questioned over irregularities in the Arkavathy Layout case, S Doreraju, senior counsel for the public, submitted before the Justice H S Kempanna Commission on Monday. Later, speaking to DH on the sidelines of the third round of arguments, Doreraju said that the chief minister had denotified a total of 983.33 acres in the controversial housing colony.

This contradicts the government order (UDD 619/MNM 2014) which states that the Urban Development Department denotified only 944.5 acres. “We pointed out this error to the commission on Monday and questioned what happened to 38.83 acres. The government did this deliberately,” he added. In 2003-04, Doreraju continued, the government issued preliminary and final notifications, and allotted 8,813 sites even before the land acquisition process could get over and the required facilities were created. As many as 5,000 allottees registered the sites after receiving allotment letters.

‘Procedures violated’
Doreraju questioned how could the allotment happen without following the due procedure. Sites were allotted to people even before farmers could be compensated for parting with their land. He suggested that the chief minister signed the papers without verifying the records or following the orders given by the Supreme Court. In 2003, then chief minister S M Krishna deleted 1,089 acres without assigning the reasons.

His successor N Dharam Singh and then Governor Rameshwar Thakur’s advisor Krishna Kumar also denotified land. Later chief ministers H D Kumaraswamy, B S Yeddyurappa, D V Sadananda Gowda and Jagadish Shettar followed suit, Doreraj said.

The senior counsel said that while all the former chief ministers faced enquiry from the CID, the CBI and the Lokayukta, Siddaramaiah went “scot-free”. The incumbent chief minister should also be questioned, he said. The counsel also submitted to the commission that out of 3,889 acres of land, 1,039 acres were notified in the first instance.

According to the revised and re-revised plans of Arkavathy Layout, the total available land is 1,766 acres and seven guntas. Of this, 1,000 acres of land are yet to be acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for developing more sites in the proposed layouts.