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Toll Plaza scam: Union Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi under scanner

  • Union Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi has been allegedly named in favouring persons involved in the Toll Plaza scam
  • The Cover Story has found that Minister had written to the NHAI favouring two accused
  • The Toll Plaza location was shifted, and an exorbitant rate was paid for the land
Toll Plaza scam Union Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi under scanner

Union Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi has been allegedly named in favouring persons involved in the Toll Plaza scam. Suvarna News and Kannada Prabha's Cover Story with Vijayalakshmi Shibaroor has exposed the scandal.

The Cover Story has found that Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi had written to the National Highway Authority favouring two persons to shift the location of the toll plaza on Solapur-Mangaluru National Highway 13 and charged exorbitant price on the land acquisition.

According to the latest news, even the Centre has asked for more details on this and action on Jigajinagi if found guilty.

With this, the cost of Toll Plaza which would have been under lakhs has increased to crores of rupees incurring a huge loss to the Centre.

The land for the toll plaza has been acquired by Vithalgowda Rudragowda Biradar Patil and Sushilbhai Hanumantha Utagi at the cost of Rs 6,064 per square metre at Tidagundi situated 20 km from Vijayapur.

Earlier the toll plaza was planned to be installed at Agasanala in Vijayapur. But Minister Jigajinagi wrote the to NHAI and got the toll plaza shifted to Tidagundi. The price of square metre land in Tidagundi is just Rs 41, but the two accused Vithalgowda and Sushilbhai were paid Rs 6,064 per square metre, courtesy Minister Ramesh Jigajinagi.

Even the land at  Agasanala would have cost Rs 377 per square metre for the government. But the two accused amassed crores of rupees incurring a huge loss to the government.

The Cover Story also found that both had brought the land at Tidagundi sometime before it was acquired for the toll plaza.

   

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