Muda row: RTI activists dispute Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah’s acquisition claims

MYSURU: In a new controversy over the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (Muda) land ‘scam’, it has now come to light that the land in Kesare, Mysuru, was acquired by Muda in 1998 from one Javara, contrary to claims made by chief minister Siddaramaiah.
Muda had acquired the land for a layout development project. The whereabouts of Javara, a Scheduled Caste community member, are unknown, although the address in records trace to Bengaluru.
On Thursday, Siddaramaiah had claimed that his family property in Kesare measuring 3 acres and 16 guntas was “illegally” acquired by Muda, resulting in the allocation of 14 alternative sites as compensation at an upmarket locality.He also said he would return the land if Muda were to pay him the current market value of Rs 62 crore.
But property documents accessed by RTI activists sug- gest Siddaramaiah’s brotherin-law, Mallikarjuna, purchased the land only in 2004 — after it was denotified. TOI could not independently verify the veracity of these documents. But RTI activists also say Muda authorities had failed to register the land as notified in the register.
Siddaramaiah was then the deputy CM in a CongressJD(S) govt.
“We are still trying to find Javara to check whether he was issued notice when the land was acquired and notified in 1997-98 and whether he volunteered to sell his land to Mallikarjun after it was notified,” said Gangaraju, an RTI activist.
He went on to say, “Mallikarjuna got a sale deed in his favour in 2004 and then gifted it to his sister Parvathi in 2010. It was only in 2014 that Parvathi sought compensation for the land that was acquired and developed by Muda.”
The issue came to light following a complaint by PS Nataraj, a retired Muda employee, who, in Aug last year, urged district deputy commissioner KV Rajendra to seek clarification and necessary measures from the urban development department. Incidentally, Rajendra was transferred on Friday.
RTI activists say, Muda had acquired a total of 130 acres of land in the northeast of Mysuru to form Hanchya-Sathgalli A and B Zone and Devanur III Stage layouts. This parcel of land included the plot that belonged to Sid- daramaiah’s wife, Parvathi. The urban body developed a total of 8,486 sites in these layouts and distributed them in 2001-02. It is unclear how much of the 130 acres of land was used to develop these sites and what portion of the unused land was denotified.
Meanwhile, social worker Snehamayi Krishna has now filed a complaint with Vijayanagara police alleging that Siddaramaiah, his wife Parvathi, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna, and others created fake documents to acquire land illegally from an SC member. However, police did not register a case on the grounds that it is being investigated by a special team led by IAS officers.