MYSURU: JDS leader and Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy on Friday hit out at the Congress government in Karnataka for levelling “baseless” allegations against him in connection with a land denotification in Bengaluru, and said the entire controversy was “a product of the Congress toolkit.”
Ministers Krishna Byregowda, Santhosh Lad, and Dinesh Gundu Rao held a press conference on Thursday and released documents regarding the denotification of 1.1 acres of land at Gangenahalli in Bengaluru. They demanded that the Lokayukta expedite its probe against Kumaraswamy and former CM BS Yediyurappa in connection with the case.
Saying that he would resign in a minute if the charges against him are proven, Kumaraswamy said that the press conference by the three ministers was scripted and was done to “please someone.”
He said that the Congress government in the state has been conspiring to fix him in some case. “I did not denotify or give approval to denotify the land in question. I am not running away. The land belongs to my mother-in-law. I have not denotified any land. If I had any interest, I would have approved it and gotten it denotified during my tenure as CM. How am I responsible when I have just directed the officer concerned to look into the request,” he said. “I had not created fake records to get 14 sites like Chief Minister Siddaramaiah,” he added.
Displaying a copy of what he called a “script” given to the ministers to attack him and Yediyurappa, Kumaraswamy said that they cannot digest the fact that he is a union minister. They (Congress) have prepared a toolkit to corner him, the JDS leader said, adding that he would not knock at anyone’s door for help as he had done no wrong. He disclosed that only four denotifications were done during his tenure as CM and were done legally.
He claimed that he is aware of “irregularities” in the Revenue Department and that he would expose them soon. Krishna Byre Gowda is the Revenue Minister. He said that Byre Gowda, who studied abroad, failed to wet the documents before coming to the media.
He claimed that the government completed a detailed inquiry in 2015 and closed it by filing a B report. However, the government is keen to keep it alive and fix him on land denotification charges when everything was done legally, he added.
On revival of industries
HD Kumaraswamy said that he has prepared a roadmap to revive public sector undertaking units. Kumaraswamy said that his ministry is looking at the possibility of reviving industries, including HMT, despite the Union Cabinet taking a decision to close the unit.
Kumaraswamy said that he would visit North Eastern states and look at reviving cement factories to generate jobs. He said that his ministry would survey PSU lands, as there are reports of more than 1,000 acres of land belonging to HMT being encroached on in Bengaluru.