In Karnataka, CM Siddaramaiah is surrounded from all sides on corruption charges and now Governor Thawarchand Gehlot has given permission to run a case against him. The issue is about a piece of land measuring 3.14 acres which is in the name of his wife Parvati. BJP is continuously attacking the Chief Minister and his government on this issue and has accused CM Siddaramaiah of corruption and demanded his resignation.
On the other hand, Siddaramaiah has rejected all these allegations and called the Governor’s decision unconstitutional. He says that he will challenge it legally. He said that the Governor is not tolerating this government and is trying to remove it.
Now the question is what is this land issue, what is MUDA and how is it involved in this. Apart from this, how did this corruption reach CM Siddaramaiah and who raised this issue. Let us take a closer look at all these questions and know the answers to the important questions.
Mysore Urban Development Authority is called MUDA in short form. This authority is an autonomous body for the development work of Mysore city. The work of acquisition and allotment of land is the responsibility of the authority. Since the matter is of land scam, the name of MUDA has been associated with this case from the beginning. That is, from 2004. This case is related to the allotment of land parcels as compensation by MUDA when Siddaramaiah was the Chief Minister. Social activists have alleged that there have been irregularities in this process. Due to this, the government treasury has suffered a loss of crores. Names of top officials of MUDA and Revenue Department have also come to the fore in this case.
Mysore Urban Development Authority had acquired some land from farmers in 1992 to develop it into a residential area. It was separated from agricultural land as per the procedure, but in 1998, a part of the acquired land was returned to the farmers by MUDA. In this way, this land once again became agricultural land. Till here everything was fine. Now the dispute started from the year 2004, during this time Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvati’s brother B M Mallikarjun bought 3.16 acres of land in the same land in the year 2004. During this time, in 2004-05, there was a Congress JDS coalition government in Karnataka and then Siddaramaiah was the Deputy CM. During this time it came to light that this land was once again separated from agricultural land, but by the time Siddaramaiah family reached to take ownership of the land, the layout had already been developed there.
CM Siddaramaiah also claims that the piece of land for which his wife received compensation was gifted by his brother Mallikarjuna in 1998, but RTI activist Krishna alleged that Mallikarjuna had acquired it illegally in 2004 and got it registered using forged documents with the help of government and revenue officials. The land was shown to have been purchased in 1998, in 2014 when Siddaramaiah was the Chief Minister, his wife Parvati had demanded compensation for this land.
Siddaramaiah also says that his wife was given compensation when BJP was in power and it was her right. He said that BJP people have given her the site, now if they call it illegal, how should one respond?
This case of irregularity in MUDA came to light in early July last month. On July 1, a government order was issued for an inquiry led by IAS officer Venkatachalapathi R, stating that there were suspicions of irregularities in MUDA land allotment, which was allotted to influential people instead of giving it to eligible beneficiaries. After the alleged scam came to light in the state, Karnataka Leader of Opposition R. Ashok alleged that Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvati was also a beneficiary in a similar way and she was also given an alternative site in violation of the rules.
MUDA had come up with a scheme for people who lost their land during urban development. In this scheme named 50:50, people who lost land became entitled to 50% of the developed land. This scheme was first implemented in 2009 and was discontinued by the then BJP government in the year 2020. Despite the scheme being discontinued, MUDA continued to acquire and allocate land under the 50:50 scheme. This is the basic controversy, it is alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvati was benefited under this.
It is alleged that 3.16 acres of land belonging to the Chief Minister’s wife was acquired by MUDA. In return, 14 sites were allotted in an expensive area. This land in Kesare on the outskirts of Mysore was gifted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvati by her brother Mallikarjuna Swamy in 2010. It is alleged that MUDA developed the Devnur Phase III scheme without acquiring this land.
Based on the application made by Chief Minister Parvati for compensation, MUDA allotted 14 sites in Vijayanagar III and IV Phases. This allotment was of a total area of 38,284 sq ft under the state government’s 50:50 ratio scheme. The 14 sites allotted in the name of the Chief Minister’s wife are facing scam charges. The opposition is vocal in saying that irregularities have been committed in the allotment of these sites to Parvati by MUDA.
The entire matter was raised by three activists Pradeep Kumar, TJ Abraham and Snehmayi Krishna. They had requested Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to take action against the Chief Minister. In his petition to the Governor, anti-corruption activist Abraham had alleged that this big scam has caused huge loss to the government treasury and requested him to grant permission to prosecute.
In July, she had complained to the Lokayukta police that the allotment of 14 sites in a posh area of Mysuru to Siddaramaiah’s wife BM Parvati was illegal. Apart from Siddaramaiah, the complaint also named his wife, son S Yatindra and senior MUDA officials. Apart from this, activist Snehamayi Krishna has also accused Siddaramaiah, his wife and MUDA and administrative officials of collusion in this land scam.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)