Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has claimed that Union minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and other leaders from Janata Dal (Secular) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are among the beneficiaries of the same Mysuru Urban Development Authority ‘scam’, which the Opposition has alleged his involvement in.
He made the remarks Friday after weeks of being targeted by leaders of other parties, accusing him of benefitting from “illegal” land allotments by MUDA.
“I am not saying all of this (allotment) was done illegally. It has been done in accordance with the law the same way as in this case (allotment to Siddaramaiah’s wife in 2021),” Byrathi Suresh, Karnataka’s urban development minister said, sitting next to the chief minister.
According to documents released by Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy was allotted a 21,000 square feet plot by MUDA in 1984 in the Vishweshwaraiah Industrial Area for a sum of Rs 37,344, and in December 2000, Kumaraswamy had allegedly written to MUDA commissioner, seeking the occupancy certificate.
After several other related applications and requests, Kumaraswamy had written to MUDA in October 2019, asking for allotment of an alternate plot since the previous one had been encroached upon, as claimed by Siddaramaiah.
The chief minister also said that there were several other leaders from the JD(S) and BJP, who were allotted alternate plots since their original land was taken over by MUDA.
“BJP and JD(S), which have lost the trust of the people, could not win more seats and votes than last time in the Lok Sabha elections. We got 13 percent more votes this time than the last election. Because of this, they were desperate and have taken the wrong path to try to regain the trust of the people,” he told reporters in Bengaluru Friday.
Meanwhile, Union minister Kumaraswamy has denied the allegations levelled against him.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi Friday, the JD(S) leader claimed that he had not received any alternate plot. “I paid Rs 38 lakh for an industrial site in Mysuru 40 years ago. MUDA gave me an allotment letter, but the plot was never handed over to me,” he said.
He added that he had asked for land in the industrial area, when he was in the film distribution business and had not yet made his political debut.
“I was not in politics at the time (when the plot was requested in 1984). I never utilised any political power to influence MUDA officials. I wrote twice to MUDA in 2012 and 2017, requesting them to provide me with the plot as per the allotment letter, but they did not respond,” the former Karnataka CM told media persons.
‘My life is an open book’
Siddaramaiah has claimed that JD(S) and BJP leaders, like G.T. Deve Gowda, S.R. Mahesh and H. Vishwanath, also benefited from similar allotment of plots by MUDA, but are falsely targeting him to avenge the loss in the 2023 assembly polls and tarnish his “unblemished” public image.
“It has been 40 years since I first became a minister. Till date, I don’t have a single black spot on me. My political life is an open book,” he said during a Karnataka assembly session Thursday.
The session of the state legislature that began on 16 July, ended abruptly Thursday after the Opposition’s relentless protests against the Siddaramaiah-led Congress party over the alleged irregularities in the operations of MUDA and diversion of funds from the state-run Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.
BJP and JD(S) leaders have decided to march from Bengaluru to Mysuru next week to intensify protests against the chief minister and demand his resignation. MPs from the two parties also protested outside the Parliament Friday.
The Karnataka Congress has also been witnessing a power tussle within its top ranks, as Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar continues to assert his authority. But the party has so far rallied behind Siddaramaiah, defending the 76-year-old inside and outside the legislature against the allegations of corruption.
Shivakumar said Friday that the proposed ‘Padayatra’ (footmarch) by the Opposition was a “ploy to tarnish the CMs image”.
“The MUDA had taken over land belonging to the chief minister without issuing any notification. Later, it allotted sites as compensation for that land. The bylaws allow allotment of sites, if land is acquired without any notification. The chief minister’s family has not asked for sites in specific localities, but accepted whatever was allotted by MUDA. These sites were allotted during the rule of the previous government,” the deputy CM said.
“Sites have been allotted to others during the same time and the minister concerned will give details on this. We will reveal the scams that took place during the BJP government. As far as the CM’s family is concerned, everything has happened within the legal framework,” he added.
‘Siddaramaiah’s true colours exposed’
The Congress and Siddaramaiah have maintained that the 3.16 acre land belonging to his wife was “illegally encroached upon” by MUDA authorities, sometime between 2011 and 2014. And later, the agency alloted 14 plots on its own in a different locality in Mysuru.
BJP has alleged that the original land itself was taken away from Dalit families and that the CM manipulated the system to get plots in localities where land was valued higher. It had moved an adjournment motion to discuss the two ‘scams’ in the assembly session, but Speaker U.T. Khader denied it, saying that the matters were being probed by a judicial commission and other agencies, and the motion would go against the norms.
“The true colours of the CM have been exposed. Siddaramaiah claims to be honest. This was not the first time. He has been caught in the BDA (Bangalore Development Authority) scandal, where he closed the case by forming a commission. Meanwhile, the MUDA scandal took place in Mandya, and at that time, Siddaramaiah handed it over to the CBI. Now, a scandal has occurred in Mysore MUDA,” Basavaraj Bommai, former chief minister and BJP leader, told reporters in Delhi Friday.
The Valmiki ‘scam’ — alleged misappropriation of around Rs 90 crore — is currently being probed by a state-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) as well as central investigation agencies, since the alleged transactions were made via a nationalised bank.
B.Nagendra, the minister for ST welfare, has since stepped down, and is currently in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)