BENGALURU: Arkavathy Layout redo and denotification issue kicked up a storm in the Assembly on Monday with former chief minister Jagadish Shettar questioning leader of opposition Siddaramaiah why he did not place the Justice Kempanna commission report before the House.
Earlier, Siddaramaiah had skipped the session due to health reasons. Ruling party members, including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, had alleged there had been corruption during Siddaramaiah’s tenure between 2013-18. Siddaramaiah arrived in the afternoon and asked why the then opposition leaders including Bommai and Shettar did not raise the issue.
Shettar responded saying that as the leader of opposition, he had raised the Arkavathy Layout redo issue on many occasions in the House, and sought the placing of Justice Kempanna report for discussion. “During your tenure, you didn’t place the report. Now, you are alleging corruption in the government based on contractors’ association president D Kempanna’s allegation of 40 per cent commission,” Shettar told Siddaramaiah, adding that a commission should have been set up with a sitting judge as the chairman.
Siddaramaiah said that another committee was set up chaired by former chief secretary Vijay Bhasker to give recommendations based on Justice Kempanna’s report, and since there was no time and with the model code of conduct in force for the 2018 Assembly polls, the report could not be placed.
“The BJP government has been in power for four years. Why haven’t you placed the report in the House,” he asked. Siddaramaiah clarified that the redo was done in compliance with the order of the Karnataka High Court as there were contempt petitions pending before it against the officials.
“The word redo is also not mine, it is of HC’s. Kempanna’s report had clarified that as CM, I had not done the denotification,” he said.
Reacting to BJP MLAs’ allegations of weakening Lokayukta and setting up of ACB, Siddaramaiah said that it was necessary as the then Lokayukta Bhaskar Rao’s son was allegedly involved in corruption.
“In BJP-ruled states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, there is no Lokayukta, but there is ACB. Even in Karnataka, the government established Lokayukta not on its own but on the orders of the high court,” he said.
Siddaramaiah also claimed that as CM, he had given nine cases, including the suspicious deaths of DySP Ganesh, IAS officer DK Ravi, murder of Paresh Mesta, to the CBI when Congress was not in power in the Centre.
When BJP’s Rupali Naik alleged that Siddaramaiah had destroyed the evidence by then, it led to pandemonium with MLAs of both sides embroiled in mud-slinging. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhu Swamy suggested that Siddarmaiah should be debating on the budget.