Govt digs out two CAG reports to counter BJP

Bengaluru: The state government wants to counter the BJP in kind over the Arkavathy issue. It has now dusted up the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) reports of recent years that exclusively deal with land denotifications done by earlier chief ministers to prove its point.
With the BJP hoping to meet governor Vajubhai R Vala this week to seek permission to prosecute chief minister Siddaramaiah in the alleged denotification of 119 acres in Arkavathy Layout, the two reports are being brandished to rebut the charges.The CAG report exclusively on (Bangalore Development Authority) BDA tabled in the December 2012 Belagavi session has severely indicted the governments that were in power between 2007 and 2012, for illegal denotification of lands acquired by the BDA.
In these five years, the government denotified 212.39 acres in 126 cases illegally. HD Kumaraswamy and BS Yeddyurappa were the CMs in this period and the report ‘Denotification of Land by Government and Allotment of Sites by BDA’ explains how every rule and court order was flouted by chief ministers, BDA and officials.
Another report of CAG tabled in the recent session at Belagavi also highlights the lapses and denotification of land in housing boards. “This a proper document for us to complain at any level. A petition will be submitted before the Lokayukta at an appropriate time,” Congress sources said.
“The denotification of 212.39 acres of land was done in defiance of the law. Once the land is notified and taken possession for public purpose, the government has no powers to denotify it. If a land has to be denotified, it has to be approved by the denotification committee. But the CMs had unilaterally denotified 212.39 acres without bringing it to the notice of the committee,” the CAG report observed.
BOX
What 2012 CAG report said:
*From 2007 to 2012, the BDA allotted 265 civic amenity (CA) sites, 541 corner and intermediate sites, 438 stray sites and 924 alternative sites
*10 persons who had declared they owned sites/houses were also given sites. Loss was Rs 9.84 crore
*CA sites have to be leased only after notifying the public. BDA leased three CA sites directly to three institutions on orders of then CM B S Yeddyurappa