BANGALORE: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday accused the Opposition BJP of hatching a conspiracy to destablise the Congress government in the name of mutlti-crore Arkavathy Layout land denotification scam.
Siddaramaiah said he has not denotified even one gunta of land or indulged in corruption in public life.
The Chief Minister charged that the BJP has planned to use the land denotification an issue for the by-election scheduled to be held in three Assembly constituencies on August 21.
He told reporters at Vidhana Soudha that B S Yeddyurappa, H D Kumaraswamy and Jagadish Shettar denotified land during their tenures as chief ministers. Reiterating that Shettar had denotified 540 acres of land in the run-up to the election, he said that they have remodified the affidavit submitted to the High Court. “If they (BJP) have any doubts about our commitment, they should not accept judicial, CID nor a House Committee probe,” he said.
He said that the BJP will not be successful in tarnishing the government’s image as people know the true colours and history of the BJP leaders. Siddaramaiah said he had exposed 20 serious issues, including illegal mining, when he was the Opposition Leader and demanded a CBI probe into them. “The then BJP government did not even show the courtesy to refer the case to CBI. They should make it public how much they got from denotifying land in Arkavathy Layout,” he said.
Ready for Probe
Siddaramaiah said that there are no corruption charges against him.
“I am ready for a probe into my family members and my assets. If I am proved to be corrupt, I will quit politics,” he said.
11,000 Sites to be Distributed
Asked why the government is hesitant to order a CBI probe, he said that the BJP leaders want to escape law by prevailing on CBI with the support of the Centre.
Already 11 years have passed since the formation of Arkavathy Layout and only 5,000 sites have been distributed to applicants. There is scope to give away 11,000 more sites, Siddaramaiah said.
The chief minister further maintained that the CBI probe would take many more years as many housing societies, institutions and other structures have come up in the land.
“We have not distributed sites in 10 years. BJP wants to stop us from distributing sites in our term,” he added.
He accused the BJP members of constantly disrupting the legislative proceedings this session.