MYSURU: The Karnataka government has constituted a one-man commission headed by retired Justice PN Desai to conduct a probe into the alleged scam in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), which is a worry not only for MUDA officials but private developers as well, as the probe will include layouts developed from 2007 to July 15, 2024. The probe will be carried out over six months.
The committee will look into administrative decisions, government approvals and matters related to approval of layouts, land acquisition, notification and denotification, change of sites and allotment of developed sites under 50:50 ratio, to throw light on alleged scams involving MUDA. It will also look into decisions taken by MUDA chairmen in recent years.
The MUDA ‘land scam’ surfaced and caught the attention of the government and public after previous Deputy Commissioner KV Rajendra shot off a letter to the government on allotment of sites to landlosers under 50:50 scheme, when the government turned down the proposal by MUDA.
The Authority, which has not given much time for development of layouts to meet the people’s aspirations of owning a plot in Mysuru city, has approved the development of 1,500 layouts across the city. MUDA has developed a few layouts, including Lalithadarinagar, Vasanth Nagar, Shanthaveere Gopalagowda Nagar, Lal Bahadur Shastri Nagar, Vijayanagar Fourth Stage, Sathagalli, Devanoor and RT Nagar.
MUDA hit the headlines after opposition parties raised a storm over the allotment of 14 sites to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi in an upmarket area, for giving up 3.16 acres in Devanoor Layout. Allegations and counter-allegations from ruling and opposition parties have continued.
In many private layouts, developers have failed to provide basic amenities like roads, drinking water, streetlights and parks, but have managed to get all sites released from MUDA and sold them to the public. In a few layouts, developers have formed sites in areas meant for parks and civic amenities, and sold them, despite it being brought to the notice of the authorities.
These fraudulent activities by developers and MUDA authorities impact residents, who suffer as the layouts are not maintained by the developer, local panchayats or city corporation. Sources said a change of sites has been done quietly in MUDA, and there are also cases of a few people managing to get sites in upmarket Vijayanagar on the pretext of losing land to MUDA in the 1970s.
In a few cases, one site under the change of site scheme has been allotted to two applicants, making them run from pillar to post. Meanwhile, a few concerned citizens have decided to furnish documents before the one-man panel probing the scam, to expose the irregularities and fraudulent sales carried out by private developers.