From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Dec 4: The no-holds war between chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and his arch detractor in JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and his family over allegations regarding illegal land acquisition and other irregularities was on display in the latter’s home turf in Hassan district.
 
A high-level team of carefully chosen trusted officials of the chief minister led by a senior official holding the rank of deputy secretary landed in Hassan district and reportedly held discussions with the deputy commissioner of Deve Gowda’s home district of Hassan on various land holdings of the former prime minister’s family in their native Holenarasipur taluk.
 
While Deve Gowda represents the Hassan lok sabha constituency, his elder son and JD(S) floor leader in the state assembly H D Revanna is representing the Holenarasipur assembly constituency.
 
The tahsildars of Holenarasipur and neighbouring Arkalgud taluks as well as officials from the revenue department were summoned for the discussions.
 
The chief minister’s official team, which was headed by the deputy secretary Mohammed Baig, also visited the offices of the Holenarasipur and Arkalgud taluks to scrutinize the land records.
 
The official sources, who confirmed the visit of the team from the chief minister’s office to Hassan district, however, declined to reveal whether any incriminating records were found. Another round of inspection and scrutinisation of records, if necessary by a personal visit, cannot be ruled out, the sources said.

Yeddyurappa had publicly declared that the government would seize all illegal land holdings or acquisitions by the Deve Gowda family and distribute it to the poor dalits, Deve Gowda’s son and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, who is also the state JD(S) president, had challenged the chief minister to hold all investigations and distribute any illegal land holdings by the family to landless farmers and poor dalits.

Kumaraswamy had gone to the extent of declaring that they would organise a public function so that Yeddyurappa himself could conduct the investigation and distribute the illegal lands.

The chief minister’s political secretary B J Puttaswamy, a former Congressman who switched loyalties to BJP, had publiclyalleged that Deve Gowda and his family had illegally grabbed 82.01 acres of government, gomala and tank bed area at Kamenahalli, Paduvalahippe, Galipura Kaval, Maragowdanahalli, Chakenahalli of Holenarasipura and Arakalgud taluks of Hassan district.

Documents related to illegal acquisition of lands by the Deve Gowda family were missing, Puttaswamy claimed.

The JD(S) workers had taken sharp exception to the allegations leveled by Puttaswamy and had attacked his residence. The JD(S) workers had even heckled and tried to manhandle Puttaswamy, when he went to participate in a Kannada TV debate after the controversial allegations against Deve Gowda family.

Congress demands Yeddyurappa’s resignation

Meanwhile, Congress opposition leader in the legislative council Motamma, who addressed a news conference in Bangalore on Saturday, reiterated the party’s demand for the chief minister’s resignation to ensure an impartial probe into the sordid land scams by Yeddyurappa and various allegations of nepotism, favouritism and irregularities to help his sons, daughters, son-in-law and sister and other relatives.

It is shameful that several ministers were guilty of various irregularities in land denotifications and acquisitions by Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), she said and pointed out that even the high court had gone to the extent of sarcastically suggesting that it was better wind up the KIADB.

Motamma alleged that several ministers in the Yeddyurappa government and BJP State president K S Eshwarappa were involved in alleged illegal land acquisitions and denotifications.

''It is improper on the part of these ministers and the Chief Minister to continue in the office,” she said and demanded their resignations till their names get cleared from murky land deals.

She said the BJP Government had misused the KIADB, which was set up in 1966 for allotment of lands for industries on a transparent manner. Allotment of housing and other industrial sites to children and relatives of Yeddyurappa was a classic instance of misuse of the organisation, she alleged.

Motamma claimed that the government was now planning to denotify 400 acres acquired at Kagganahalli in Kanakapura taluk for Gokuldas firm in 2006-07. The company has deposited Rs. 16 crore with the KIADB for land acquisition.

The the firm has not set up the factory but the government has now decided to denotify the land to allot people closed to the BJP leaders, Motamma alleged.

It may recalled that the Congress leaders had submitted a pile of documents relating to various land scams by the Yeddyurappa regime to Lokayukta Justice N Santhosh Hegde on Friday.

The Congress leader also strongly criticised the sari distribution programme of the government and alleged that the inferior quality of saris had been distributed to women under the Bhagyalakshmi scheme to woo voters in the coming zilla and taluk panchayat elections.

Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje’s statement that all villages have been supplied round-the-clock power was a big joke, Motamma said pointing out that several villages in the State were reeling under darkness due to disruptions in the power supply for several hours.