BENGALURU: In a significant development in the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment issue, GT Dinesh Kumar, former commissioner of MUDA, has been suspended as registrar of Haveri University. He was appointed to the post just three days ago, despite severe criticism.
The order on suspension of Dinesh Kumar has only proved BJP MLC Adagur Vishwanath right who was the first to raise serious allegations in the MUDA scandal. On Monday, he said, “Mooru janarannu oddhu olage hakabeku (three people need to be put behind bars). One of them is GT Dinesh Kumar. The other two are the current Urban Development Minister Byrati Suresh and former MUDA commissioner B Natesh.”
Though the government has continued to deny any wrongdoing, the MUDA scandal has caused a major uproar in the state. The High Court is currently hearing a case filed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, challenging Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s decision to allow his prosecution.
But the suspension of Dinesh has raised questions over whether the government will take action against Byrati Suresh and Natesh.
Dinesh faces allegations of illegally allocating sites and introducing the 50:50 ratio for allocation of sites for land acquired, without informing the MUDA Board. The suspension order specifically mentions that the 50:50 ratio rule he implemented was improper. But it is the same scheme that made Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi eligible for 14 sites, allotted in lieu of 3 acre 16 gunta of land acquired by MUDA.
Byrathi Suresh is facing serious criticism because he ignored the issue when it was first raised by Congress MLC Sudham Das during the Belagavi Session in December 2023. Suresh is also being blamed because allegations of Dinesh Kumar’s misdeeds were brought to his and government’s attention multiple times, with suggestions to transfer him on at least three occasions. But each time, both the minister and the government chose to look the other way. Sources said that if Dinesh had been transferred in December 2023, they would not have facing this embarrassment now.
After Natesh’s tenure as MUDA commissioner, an upright officer, Kantharaj, took over the position. Kantharaj successfully accumulated 10,000 stray sites for MUDA, which Dinesh Kumar allegedly mismanaged when he became the commissioner.
