From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Jul 26: A day after the sine-die adjournment of the monsoon session of the State legislature amid opposition BJP’s overnight dharna over the MUDA and Valmiki Corporation scams, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday came out with facts, figures and documents to prove his innocence and transparency.

“My life is an open book. Each page is marked by transparency and honesty. There is not the slightest black mark in my life and I have maintained the sanctity of political life,” he said addressing a crowded press conference in Vidhana Soudha.

Siddaramaiah charged the opposition BJP and its new-found ally JDS of being ‘irresponsible’ with the opposition parties not bothered about the problems of the people and other burning issues in the State and wasting precious legislature time in ‘meaningless’ protests and dharnas.

“Both BJP and JDS are frustrated after the Congress party won 135 seats in the assembly elections. They have started giving politically motivated statements and are trying to tarnish the image of Chief Minister because they are unable to stomach the fact that I have become the Chief Minister for the second time,” he said.

The Chief Minister said both the opposition parties, which have been raising the MUDA scam issue during the two weeks of the session, did not have any official documents to support their allegations. “I am releasing copies of the documents to place them before the people and hold the mirror to exhibit their political drama,” he said.

“This is dirty politics to implicate my family to further their sinister political agenda,” he said and pointed out that the disputed land in the MUDA scam owned by one of the sons of Ninga @ Javara was purchased by B M Mallikarjun and wondered if the sale isn’t covered by the PTCL Act.

He explained that Javara’s son Ning had applied to the Mysuru taluk office on August 2, 1935 to grant him land and the lower officials had submitted a report on August 15, 1935 stating that the land sought by Ninga could be disposed of through auction. The auction was conducted on September 26, 1935 and the sale was confirmed on October 13, 1935.

As the land in question was purchased through auction it becomes self-owned and the government does not have any hold over it. Therefore, the PTCL Act does not apply to the disputed land and there are court judgements on the issue, he said.

Narrating the background of the disputed land and the sale particulars at different points of time, Siddaramaiah said all the transactions were done prior to 2010 and made it clear that he was not involved in the matter in any way.

The Chief Minister claimed that the averments made by the BJP in their memorandum to Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot were baseless and factually incorrect. He also said the then BJP Urban Development Minister B N Bacchegowda had examined the issue and noted that the final notification for the acquisition of the land was issued before August 20, 1997 and that the MUDA had passed a resolution on July 24, 1997 itself to drop the proposal for acquisition of the land.

He mentioned that MUDA had dropped land acquisition in respect of 235.30 acres of land in 13 different layouts from 1984.

Referring to the BJP allegation that his family was involved in the land deal, Siddaramaiah said the land had already been converted on July 14, 2005 when it came in the possession of his family. An application for providing alternative land for the acquisition of the land was submitted on June 23, 2014 and October 25, 2021 as the land was utilised by MUDS. MUDA resolved the give alternative sites on 50:50 basis on September 14, 2020 and the state government had cancelled the resolution.

The issue was discussed in MUDA meeting on December 7, 2020 in which JDS leader G T Deve Gowda, BJP’s S A Ramadas, L Nagendra and Congress leader Sandesh Nagaraj had participated.

The Chief Minister said his wife had again submitted an application on October 23, 2021 stating the MUDA had acquired the land owned by her without giving any compensation and has again requested that the alternative land on the basis of 50:50 ratio as already decided must be provided and the MUDA had passed an order on December 30, 2021 to grant 38,284 sq ft of sites as compensation in Kesare village.

The entire issue is being investigated by the judicial probe headed by Justice P N Desai, retired high court judge, and the commission has already started the investigation.

The Chief Minister claimed that the BJP-JDS leaders have attempted to tarnish his image in the MUDA scam as well in the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, which is presently under probe by the SIT formed by the government and also the ED and CBI as a nationalised bank is involved in the illegal transfer of the funds, he said.