Siddaramaiah gets clean chit in Arkavathi denotification case

The Justice H N Kempanna Commission has given a clean chit to Siddaramaiah in the 981.21 acres land denotification in Arkavathi Layout project.  However, the report clearly states that while redoing the denotification irregularities have been cited, reported Kannada Prabha.

The Justice H S Kempanna Commission was formed 2 years ago when BJP and JD(S) had alleged irregularities in denotifying 981.21 acres of land to form Arkavathi Layout.  The Kempanna Commission investigated for 2 years and submitted a report to State Chief Secretary Subhashchandra Kuntia on Wednesday.

The report states that the chief minister Siddaramaiah had no role to play in the denotification, hinting at giving him a clean chit. However, the report says that lower level officials have done ‘redo’ of denotification of small bit lands without bringing them to the notice of the Commissioner. The report says major denotification has occurred when Shyam Bhat was the BDA chairman. However, the report does not specifically mention either Shyam Bhat or any other person as responsible for redo denotification. It can be recalled that the Arkavathi Layout denotification had rocked the assembly with severe allegations and counter allegations by both the Parties.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the Retired Justice HS Kempanna Commission, set up by the State Government to investigate into the irregularities in denotification of land in Arkavathi Layout, has incurred an expense of Rs 2.55 crores in the past 2 years.  

The report is a massive 1861 pages in 4 volumes.  A total of 128 witnesses have been inquired, including Urban Development Department Under Secretary Narasimha Murthy. BDA had submitted 434 documents and government 198 documents. Though the inquiry started in 2015 June 18, it took a total of 6 months for the Commission to collect all relevant documents. Hence the inquiry period was extended 4 times.

It can be recalled that in 2003 the BDA had first issued a notice to acquire 3839 acres of land to construct Arkavathi Layout. The farmers had protested and subsequently in 2004 total 2750 acres were finally identified.

Between 2004 and 2007 198 acres were denotified in a phase manner. Later during 2014 981 acres were cancelled for denotification. The Opposition parties had alleged that Siddaramaiah had committed irregularities in this denotification. However the Commission report has given him a clean chit.

• Siddaramaiah unaware of redo
• Arkavathi layout denotification
• denotification
• Arkavathi denotification
• CM Siddaramaiah
• Karnataka