Mangaluru: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), has in a report issued in September 2014, implicated former Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa in the state government’s denotification of 36.10 acres of land at Allalasandra in Bengaluru North Taluk in favor of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Educational Society (SDME Society) which it said was in violation of section 3 of the Karnataka Land Restriction and Transfer Act 1991 and LA Act 1894. The land had earlier been notified in favour of Karnataka Housing Board in 1991 to set up a housing project.
The CAG’s report No. 6 of the year 2014, specifically, pages 34 and 35, has red flagged this action of the then Chief Minister. The report says “the government has denotified (September 2010) an extent of 36.10 acres in Allalasandra village of Bengaluru North Taluk which had earlier been acquired for the formation of a housing project during April 1991. The above 36.10 acres of notified land was purchased by Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Education Society during the period from 15 February 1993 to May 2001.”
The report further tabulated the events that occurred from the date of acquisition to the date of denotification. According to the tabulation a final notification us/ 6(1) of the LA Act, 1984 was issued by the government, notifying 106.01 acres of land, while the SDME society purchased notified land to the extent of 36.10 acres at different periodw of time from February 15, 1993 to May 2001. The notified land, later in July 2002 and May 2003 was repossessed by the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB).
Baffled by the move of the KHB, the Dharmasthala Ed. Society filed a Writ Petition before the High Court of Karnataka in Sep 2002 and obtained status-quo order. Following this, the state government of the day in March 2004, decided to denotify land in favor of Dharmasthala Ed. Society. The party in power at this point in time was the Congress with N Dharam Singh, as the Chief Minister of Karnataka.
However the actual denotification took place in September 2011, when the state government denotified 36.10 acres land to the SDME society. The Chief Minister of the day was B S Yeddyurappa. The CAG report picking up this example of denotification in the report said society had purchased notified land in contravention of Sec 3 of, Karnataka Land (Restriction on Transfer) Act, 1991 which prohibits the transfer of land notified under the LA Act, 1894 for public purpose.
The report continued saying “the possession of the land had also been taken over by the KHB and therefore, it was not permissible under the LA Act, 1894 to denotify the land at this stage. The state government, incumbent BJP, then citing a reason that the KHB failed to develop land and any development activity at this stage would cost massive expenditure, denotified the land overlooking rules framed under the Karnataka Land Restriction and Transfer Act 1991. However, the KHB in April 2013 stated that the Revenue Department had been requesting during July 2011 to cancel denotification order and same was pending before the state government.
When Newskarnataka.com contacted B S Yeddyurappa, his personal assistant said the CAG report is not final, however he would bring this to the notice of the former Chief Minister as he was busy attending meetings.
