The land de-notification ghost has come to haunt one-year-old Congress Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Karnataka. BJP’s leader of the Opposition Jagadish Shettar, who raised the issue of de-notification of 541 acres of land in the ongoing Monsoon Session of the Assembly on Saturday alleged corruption and demanded a CBI enquiry into the entire episode.
Members of Opposition BJP led by former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar continued dharna demanding a CBI probe into alleged corruption pertaining to de-notification of 541 acres of land in Arkavathi layout of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). The Assembly proceedings witnessed a day-long dharna by the BJP and its leader Jagadish Shettar trading charges against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and demanded the Government must hand over the case to CBI.
Shettar demanded that the matter should be handed over to CBI as it is a huge scam involving crores. He alleged that Siddaramaiah had approved issuing of de-notification letter dated June 18, 2014, despite knowing that it was in violation of guidelines laid down by the Karnataka High Court for dropping land acquisition.
“Siddaramaiah is making false allegations and telling a lie. When I was the Chief Minister, the file recommending denotification of land had come to me in 2013. But I did not approve it as it was against the guidelines set by the High Court,” Shettar said. However, Siddaramaiah said 422 acres of land have been de-notified during the BJP regime when Jagadish Shettar was the Chief Minister.