MUDA scam: Citing 'legal loophole', panel gives Siddaramaiah clean chit in land allotment row

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday accepted Justice P N Desai Commission’s report exonerating Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his wife Parvathi in connection with irregularities in site allotments at the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

The MUDA scam had become Siddaramaiah’s worst political nightmare as his wife was accused of illegally receiving 14 plots in a posh Mysuru locality in exchange for 3.16 acres of her land in the Kesare village, which she claimed was usurped by MUDA.

Justice Desai specifically addressed this allegation in his report, which was submitted to the government on July 31.

It turns out that there is no definite rule or regulation governing compensation to persons whose lands are used by MUDA without due acquisition.

The Commission said that MUDA followed two modes of compensation for lands utilised without acquisition. The first mode is land, and the second being sites. As per information furnished by MUDA to the Commission, it used up 72.34 acres of land without acquisition.

“...allotment of sites is one of the modes adopted by MUDA and also BDA to provide compensation to the willing owner whose land is utilised without acquisition to give quietus to the dispute. In the absence of any statutory rule or law or regulation, such a procedure of method cannot be said as either illegal or unlawful,” the Commission said.

In Parvathi’s case, the Commission said that she insisted on “alternative undeveloped land” as compensation. “...although the resolution was passed in 2017, the same was not implemented, but subsequently in 2022, sites were allotted at the ratio of 50:50 as per one of the modes of payment of compensation adopted in the same manner as allotted to others,” the report stated.

“Hence, the allotment of sites as compensation to the land owners whose lands were de-notified, but utilised by MUDA...cannot be said to be illegal,” the Commission said. “Therefore, the methods followed by the Authority for payment of compensation in the form of sites in case of utilisation of denotified lands cannot be said unlawful, since MUDA does not have any title and legal possession over the denotified lands,” it concluded.

The Commission, however, found “certain lapses, negligence, failure in monitoring the formation of layouts, illegalities in allotment of sites and also in maintaining proper registers” and so on. One of the many recommendations is that all records at MUDA be scanned and digitised.