B'lore: HDK Joins Revanna in Lambasting CM over KHB Scam

From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Jul 18: Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa may have won a tactical victory in forcing the opposition JD(S) and Congress leaders to participate in the state assembly deliberations without conceding their demand for ordering either a CBI or Lokayukta probe into the Rs 450 crore Karnataka Housing Board scam for purchase of 959 acres of land in Shidlaghatta in Chikkaballapur district.

But the BJP regime’s troubles over the mega scam involving former housing minister S N Krishnaiah Setty, his brother Srinivasa Setty and other senior KHB officials, including its chairman G T Deve Gowda, which was first exposed by JD(S) floor leader and former public works minister H D Revanna, and supported by the principal opposition Congress party, are far from being over. 

For the record, however, the chief minister has slightly yielded ground to the opposition members by changing his earlier decision of entrusting inquiry into the alleged scam to the additional chief secretary to the chief secretary with a mandate to submit the report within six months and also announcing that KHB will not enter into any deals to buy land until the inquiry report is submitted. But he has steadfastly refused to concede the demand for either a probe by Lokayukta or CBI.

Though the Congress and JD(S) opposition members, who had staged a dharna in the well of the house and stalled the legislature proceedings for two days, had called off their protest from Friday after submitting a detailed memorandum to governor H R Bharadhwaj on the previous day, the issue seems to be snowballing into a major political controversy ahead of the ensuing by-elections to five assembly constituencies scheduled for August 18.

Irrespective of whether the governor, who is seized of the matter and had even summoned home minister Dr V S Acharya for a discussion soon on Friday night soon after the state cabinet meeting, initiates action or not, the JD(S) and Congress leaders are determined not to allow the issue to die down. 

And now, for the first time former chief minister and state JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamy has backed his brother Revanna’s allegations and has gone a step further by accusing Yeddyurappa of being ``directly involved’’ in the scam.

Kumarawamy had invited the wrath of the chief minister and was foisted with a defamation suit over his allegations against the chief minister in the allotment of the city corporation land to Maverick Holdings Pvt Ltd, belonging to former DGP  B N Garudachar’s son Uday Garudachar, who is running the successful Garuda Mall commercial project in Bangalore for construction of a shopping complex cum low-cost housing to poor slum dwellers in Ejipura in the prime Koramangala area.

``I am prepared to face any inquiry by any agency into the purchaser and sale of lands during my 20-month tenure as chief minister in coalition with BJP,’’ he said referring to the probe by the chief secretary ordered by Yeddyurappa into the purchse of lands by KHB during the last five years for different housing problems in Bangalore and other places.

Reacting sharply to the opposition campaign against his government, the chief minister had released data pertaining to the purchase of lands by the previous governments during the tenure of N Dharam Singh, Kumaraswamy and even when the state was under President’s Rule at much higher rates than the guidance value.

KHB had purchased 750 acres of land in Anekal in 2006-07 at Rs 44 lakh per acre for the Suryanagar housing project when the guidance value ranged from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per acre. In Koppal, land was purchased at Rs 7 lakh per acre against a guidance value of a mere Rs 40,000 per acre and at Rs 16 lakh per acre in Nanjangud near Mysore against the guidance value of Rs 2 lakh in 2007-08. In 2004-05, land was purchased in Kottekar village near Mangalore at Rs 14 lakh per acre against the government fixed guidance value of Rs 2.6 lakh and Kenchalagud of Mysore the land purchase was done at Rs 16 lakh per acre when the guidance value was Rs 2 lakh per acre. While the governor’s administration had purchased 918 acres of land at Rs 57 lakh per acre for establishing an industrial estate near Devanahalli, which is very near the Shidlaghatta project, the Kumaraswamy regime had purchased 175 acres of land in Archakarahalli near Ramangaram for establishing the Rajiv Gandhi Health University at Rs 40 lakh per acre, which was  fixed by enhancing the guidance value six to ten times the prevailing rates.

The JD(S) state president, who relinquished his Ramanagaram assembly seat after getting elected to Lok Sabha from Bangalore Rural parliamentary constituency, supported his brother Revanna’s allegations that KHB had purchased lands in Shidlaghatta, which is nearer to the Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli, for Rs 50 lakh per acre while paying hardly Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh to farmers.  ``Yeddyurappa, Krishnaiah Setty, his brother and his family members are directly involved,’’ he said.

``Yeddyurappa and K S Eshwarapa (energy minister) are competing with each other in real estate business in Shimoga district,’’ he alleged.

Referring to the chief minister’s statements on the issue in the state assembly, Kumaraswamy said the former had ``misled the house’’ by stating that he (Kumaraswamy) had stopped KHB from going ahead with the project in March this year.

``The project is still on. During my tenure, a policy was brought out to allot 40 per cent of developed to those farmers whose lands were acquired for industrial or housing projects. I have not cheated the farmers in a single case, ‘’ he claimed.

Kumaraswamy contended that Krishnaiah Setty during his tenure as Housing Minister had not allotted a single Ashraya House to the eligible beneficiaries and was more concerned with land deals and distribution of Tirupathi Laddus, Ganga Jal (holy water) and ordering poojas for Yeddyurappa in muzrai temples,’’ he alleged.

The former chief minister pointed out that during his tenure five satellite townships at Bidadi to decongest Bangalore had been approved to solve the housing problem. ``By shelving the project, the Yeddyurappa government had lost investment worth Rs 60,000 crore. ``The JD (S) would expose involvement of many more BJP ministers in land deals in the coming days, ‘’ he said.

Kumaraswamy also attacked the Yeddyurappa regime for its failure to tackle the fertiliser shortage in the state. ``It is shameful that farmers are forced to suffer due to shortage of fertilisers in Haveri and Davangere districts for the second year,’’ he said and demanded the resignation of agriculture minister S A Ravindranath for his failure and lathi-charge on agitating farmers in his home district of Davangere. The government should have been careful after last year’s bitter experience when police opened fire in Haveri claiming the lives of two farmers, he said.