Bangalore, July 31, 2013: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said he would order a comprehensive inquiry into alleged irregularities in allocation of alternative sites and under “land for land” scheme by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).
Replying to a discussion in the Legislative Assembly, he said strict disciplinary action would be initiated against officials if it is proved that they had indulged in irregularities. The allocation of such sites would be cancelled, he said.
Earlier, S T Somashekar and K N Rajanna (both Congress) alleged that BDA officials had allotted alternative sites to land losers in Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout, Kempegowda Layout, Jnanabharathi Layout and Banashankari Layout violating norms. Besides, certain people had been allotted BDA sites (under land for land scheme) illegally on the basis that they had lost land for construction of roads in BDA layouts, Rajanna alleged.
Documents had been created to “prove” that BDA had taken over their land without going through the acquisition process so that they become eligible for the scheme, he said.
Rajanna said six sites under the “land for land scheme” had been allotted even after Siddaramaiah passed a direction on July 11 that such allotments should be stopped. It was a huge racket and cost the state exchequer around Rs 1,000 crore, he claimed. The BDA headquarters had become a den of illegal activity, he alleged and claimed that CCTV cameras installed at the office had been smudged with cowdung by miscreants.
In his reply, Siddaramaiah said, as many as 1,293 alternative sites had been allotted by the BDA since 2008. It had allotted 201 sites under its “incentive scheme”, 165 under land for land scheme, and 1,655 persons had been allotted alternative sites for losing revenue land during the layout forming process by the BDA.
The chief minister said the inquiry will bring out the truth whether there had been irregularities in the site allocations. Appropriate action would be taken based on the findings of the inquiry, he said.
