BENGALURU: Hitting back at BJP Rajya Sabha member Lehar Singh Siroya, KPCC media and communication chairperson Ramesh Babu on Monday said the trust run by the family of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge was allotted a civic amenities (CA) site by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) as per rules and regulations.
The former MLC’s response came after Lehar Singh, citing a report, questioned the allotment of five acres of land at an aerospace park near Bengaluru to the Kharge family’s Siddhartha Vihara Education Trust.
Stating that Lehar Singh has no knowledge of the rules, Babu said as per norms, a CA site can only be granted to cooperatives, trusts and associations that are at least three years old and not to individuals. “The KIADB did not allot CA plots for the last 40 years. In some cases, the high court had strictly stated that CA sites should be allotted to associations. The CA site has been allotted to Siddhartha Vihara Education Trust as per rules,” he said.
“Let Lehar Singh publicly disclose how much property he mentioned in the election affidavit when he was an MLC in 2010 and 2016, and in the affidavit when he was elected a Rajya Sabha member. In 2010, he had declared Rs 12-13 crore as assets and has now declared Rs 70-72 crore. Don’t fling dirt at others when your own political moves are in doubt,” he commented.
He appealed to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to reveal how many acres of CA plots were allotted and to which organisations by the previous BJP government. BJP and more than 70 BJP-supported organisations have been illegally given plots, he alleged.
“He (Lehar Singh) should bear the responsibility for this illegality, because he is identified in BJP supported organisations. We are not saying that BJP and BJP-supported organisations should immediately return the illegally acquired land. Because we don’t stoop to low-level politics like Lehar Singh,” he said.
Babu claimed that the Kharge family trust acquired the land to propagate Siddhartha’s thoughts.
“The issue is being given a caste colour that Kharge was allotted the land because he belonged to the Dalit community. Lehar Singh has revealed the BJP’s anti-Dalit mentality. Established in 1994, the trust is working for a public purpose. The land must be used for public purposes and cannot be used for personal purposes,” he said.
“A complaint will be filed against Lehar Singh for targeting a community. He should apologise publicly, or else the Congress will fight against him,” he said.
KPCC General Secretary Ramachandrappa was also present.