BENGALURU: Four people, who have been allotted sites in Arkavathy Layout in Bengaluru, on Monday complained to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot accusing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the then Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) Commissioner Sham Bhatt and land acquisition officer Boraiah of involving in the alleged illegalities in denotification of land acquired for formation of the layout.
In their letter to the governor, MS Shivalingappa, M Chandrasekaran, K Ramachandraiah and Dr Venkatakrishnappa, site owners, stated that several land parcels were notified for formation of the layout in 2004-05. Some land owners challenged the acquisition of their land in the high court.
The court upheld the land acquisition, but directed the BDA to consider applications of the land owners for deletion of their land acquired by following certain parameters.
Siddu issued ‘re-do’ final notification: Complainants
Some aggrieved land owners even went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the HC ruling and added some more parameters for consideration for deletion of lands acquired.
The complainants alleged that Siddaramaiah issued a ‘re-do’ final notification to overcome legal complications by misinterpreting and misusing the court orders and based on this, the BDA deleted several land parcels acquired for formation of the layout, where sites were allotted to the people.
They said this was done after BDA collected money for the sites allotted and also taxes from the allottees.
Due to this, many allottees were affected and some middlemen, with the connivance of BDA officials, made profits at the cost of poor landowners, they said.
Although, the government formed a commission under Justice HS Kempanna to probe illegalities in the formation of Arkavathy Layout, it did not make the report public to protect the accused.
Alleging that the CM along with BDA officials had misused their powers, the complainants urged the governor to grant permission to prosecute them for the alleged illegalities.