Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 16: The issue of granting alternative site to the company that belongs to Dr Rajesh Gowda, who is linked to the company to which tender for opening laboratory within the premises of Victoria Hospital here has been granted, is snowballing into a serious issue. Chief minister (CM), Siddaramaiah's son, Dr Yathindra, is a partner of the company to which the tender for opening laboratory was entrusted.

Even as some reports claimed that a complaint stands registered relating to this issue in Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Jagadish Shettar, who has alleged that this is a scam running into crore of rupees, and that the CM is guilty of nepotism and using political influence to help the friend of his son. Shettar has demanded for handing over probe into this case to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Addressing a press conference held at the BJP parliamentary party office in Vidhan Soudha on Friday April 15, Shettar alleged that in spite of the fact that this was not permissible legally, 2.19 acres of land worth about Rs 150 crore had been granted to M/s Shanta Industrial Enterprises, which belongs to Dr Rajesh Gowda, by the side of Hebbal over bridge, in the form of alternative site.

The case connected with sanctioning of land to the company, which was in limbo since long, suddenly got moving once Dr Yathindra joined Matrix Imaging Solutions India Pvt Ltd of which Dr Rajesh Gowda is a partner. It is therefore clear that the only purpose for sanctioning land to his son's friend by the CM is to favour him, Shettar alleged.

Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had acquired 2.32 lac square feet of land under survey No. 174 and 174 in Kethamaranahalli in Mahalaxmi Layout and survey No. 59 in Yashwantpura village for the purpose of creating extension in 1977. The company, which had argued that the land it had bought in auction cannot be acquired by BDA, had challenged this matter in the court. The company in the meantime, was trying to get an alternative site, but legal opinion was that there was no provision to sanction alternative sites in such cases.

In spite of this, BDA showed keenness to seek legal opinion again, and then a decision was taken at the board meeting to vest the BDA commissioner with special power to take a final decision in the case. Therefore, Shettar said, that there is a strong case for handing this case to CBI. He accused BDA commissioner, Sham Bhat, of leading the scam involving crores of rupees in the name of sanctioning alternative site. He stressed that this was done with the blessings of the CM.

"During the last three to four years, 7.5 lac square feet of land belonging to BDA has been sanctioned illegally in various extensions and other areas in the form of alternate sites. This has caused loss amounting to crores of rupees to the state government. JDS corporator, M M Hanumanthe Gowda, has secured hundreds of alternate sites. Similar scams have also been done in case of corner sites. Therefore, BDA commissioner, Sham Bhat, should be immediately removed from BDA and the case should be handed over to CBI. IAS officer, Dr H Shashidhar's report on allotment of alternative and corner sites should be made public immediately," he demanded.