Govt asked to take over Urs' Bangalore house

Members of Samata Sainika Dal and D Devaraj Urs Smaraka Nirmana Horata Samithi have urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to take over the property where former chief minister late D Devaraj Urs lived at Sadashivanagar in Bangalore and construct a memorial in his name.

In a memorandum submitted to the government recently, the two organisations have criticised the chief minister for stating that it was a private property and demanded an apology from him.

Besides a memorial, a training centre for girl students belonging to the backward classes should be built on the plot.

Land was with BDA

The property was in the Bangalore Development Authority's (BDA) ownership till 2012. It is a mystery as to how S Mallikarjun, son of Horticulture Minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa, bought it.

Though the Urban Development Department has recommended that a Lokayukra probe should be ordered into it, nothing has been done, the members, including freedom fighter H S Doreswamy, Kannada writer Chandrashekara Patil and former minister B T Lalitha Nayak, stated.

Mallikarjun had recently taken up demolition of an old building on the plot, leading to controversy.

The two organisations have warned that they will be forced to take up State-wide agitation if the chief minister failed to fulfil their demands.