BENGALURU: The existing friction between Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and the Congress government led by CM Siddaramaiah may escalate further as the former has sought the Justice HS Kempanna commission report on denotification of the Arkavathy Layout (known as re-do case). This could mean more trouble for Siddaramaiah, who is already facing allegations in the MUDA site allotment case.
After the governor’s letter to Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh, the Urban Development Department submitted four volumes of the original report, running into 1,861 pages, to Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar on September 11.
The DCM’s office confirmed it and the Urban Development Department too filed a note on September 20 confirming the handing over of the document.
It is to be seen whether the government will table the report before the cabinet or during the legislature session as the opposition BJP has been demanding it for a long time.
It was in 2014 when Siddaramaih was CM for the first term that large tracts of land (541 acres), acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), was denotified.
Did not sign denotification file as it violated laws: Shettar
Bharatiya Janata Party had then alleged that the Chief Minister had violated the verdicts of the Karnataka High Court and Supreme Court to benefit certain realtors.
Amid a hue and cry for his resignation, Siddaramaiah had set up the Justice Kempanna commission, which submitted the report in August 2017.
But neither the Siddaramaiah government nor successive governments tabled the report either in the cabinet or the legislature session for a debate.
Siddaramaiah’s predecessor Basavaraj Bommai read out only the conclusion of the report in the Assembly in February 2023, saying it highlighted the violation of laws in the denotification of lands.
Jagadish Shettar, a senior BJP leader and Siddaramaiah’s predecessor in 2013, said he did not sign the files on the denotification of the land as he knew it violated laws.
“When I was CM, I studied the files. Since it was a violation of laws, I did not sign it, but Siddaramaiah as CM did. I had approached then Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, seeking permission to prosecute Siddaramaiah in the case, but he did not accede,” Shettar told TNIE over phone.
“If Siddaramaiah wants to get a clean chit in the case, he should have tabled it in the legislature session. We have information that the report has made some remarks on the violations of laws,” he said.
“It is a scam of over Rs 8,000 crore as mentioned in the report. Thousands of people who had applied for residential sites were denied their right. The report should be tabled in the legislature and the guilty, even if its Siddaramaiah, should be punished,” senior BJP leader and MLC CT Ravi told TNIE.
When the allegations surfaced in 2014, Siddaramaiah had then claimed that he had passed only “remodification orders” as per the six parameters laid down by the Karnataka High Court. Successive governments since 2004 had followed the same with regard to denotification of lands, he tried to point out.
In 2014, there were murmurs as to why Siddaramaiah did not take the cabinet’s nod to denotify large tracts of land. Now, many within Congress too are curious on the next move of the governor.