'Pathbreaking' politicians

A majority of politicians in Karnataka, irrespective of political party affiliations,  have a big interest in real estate. Large number of leaders in the State are either realtors or builders by profession. Politics is only supplementing their profession. This perhaps is a reason why a majority of the scams involving politicians in the State, are of late connected to prime lands in and around major cities and towns.

The State recently saw a slew of land scams involving top leaders, including Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, his cabinet colleagues and former chief ministers.

In a jaw-dropping land scam in the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board, compensation to the tune of Rs 100 crore was distributed for land that was never acquired. The compensation was given to fake farmers, and IT&BT Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu and his BBMP corporator-son Jagadish Katta were allegedly involved in it. Katta was also alleged to have gobbled hundreds of acres of KIADB land by floating bogus IT firms.

Yeddyurappa himself allegedly denotified prime land on the outskirts of Bangalore to help his two sons (one of them an MP) to  purchase it at a throwaway price. The Bangalore Development Authority had acquired the land from farmers to form residential layouts.
Yeddyurappa’s predecessor H D Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal (S) too had allegedly denotified a large extent of BDA land when he was the chief minister to help a private developer.

Large-scale irregularities were recently found in auctioning prime government lands, allegedly at the behest of a minister. The revenue department illegally handed over seven acres of high-value land near the airport to a builder in exchange for a plot of a lesser value.

Two former ministers -- Krishnaiah Setty and D Sudhakar -- were chargesheeted by the CBI for allegedly cheating a nationalised bank under the pretext of land development. Setty, who was the Housing Minister, was shunted out of the cabinet for helping his brothers sell farm land to the Karnataka Housing Board at exorbitant price.

Several legislators and MPs too have acquired prime properties in and around Bangalore. The chief minister has allotted BDA sites to most of his party MLAs and MPs under the discretionary “G” category. While politicians are pocketing large tracts of land, the BDA has not allotted a single plot to genuine applicants in the last seven years.

Irregularities are alleged in allocating land for the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project also. Leaders of all three political parties -- Congress, BJP and JD(S) -- are facing allegations in this regard. It is alleged that subsequent governments since 1996, when the project was conceived, helped the project promoter Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise  to get more land than required. The issue is in court. The project, as a result, has not made much progress in the last 15 years.

A joint House Committee headed by A T Ramaswamy which probed  encroachment of government land in Bangalore urban district between 2006 and 2007, revealed that more than 30,000 acres worth nearly Rs 50,000 crore had been encroached. The Government has recovered 8,000 acres.

N-Karnataka’s habitual grabbers 

Holding public office is seen as a ‘legitimate right’ to grab government land by many north Karnataka politicians. As soon as they get elected or appointed, they in turn appoint a confidante to scout for vacant government land. Once identified, the politicians use every means -- from persuasion to threatening officials -- to transfer the land to their dear and near ones. Apathy among officials to fence the lands has facilitated the grabbers.

 Founding a ‘charity’ organisation and transferrin g government lands to them is a popular modus operandi. Many educational and cultural organisations too have  diverted government land for commercial purposes.

Two politicians from Bidar and Bijapur have encroached acres of land around rotected monuments and converted them into sites.

(Inputs from Raju S Vijapur in Hubli.)

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