CM flouts rules in denotifying land

N D Shiva Kumar, TNN, Oct 1, 2010; BANGALORE:

More skeletons are tumbling out of chief minister B S Yeddyurappa's closet. Flouting norms and advice of officials, the CM has denotified 1 acre 30 guntas of land (75,530 sqft) acquired for Arkavathy Layout. The information obtained through an RTI query revealed that on June 7, 2010, the state government issued an order denotifying 7 acres and 35.5 guntas at Rachenahalli village, K R Puram Hobli, Bangalore East taluk. This included 1 acre 30 guntas whose deletion was against rules.

Here's how it happened

To form Arkavathy Layout, the Bangalore Development Authority acquired land at Rachenahalli and issued a final notification on February 23, 2004. Of the total nine pieces of land, the agency had issued the award for land at survey numbers 39/2B (1 acre 19 guntas), 50/2 (4 guntas) and 50/4 (7 guntas).

On November 2, 2009, on a sheet of paper, the 'farmers of Rachenahalli' wrote to the CM requesting him to denotify land of various survey numbers at Rachenahalli. The second sheet of paper contained the survey number, extent of land to be denotified and beneficiaries. There were no other details.

The CM acted swiftly and his joint secretary B G Nanda Kumar obeyed him instantly. On November 13, he wrote to the urban development department principal secretary: "I have been directed to request you to send the files related to these survey numbers to the CM."

On January 12, 2010, the under secretary (BDA) to the UDD expressed his objection and said: "The lands at survey numbers 39/2B, 50/2 and 50/4 have already been awarded. There is a legal problem to denotify these lands."

The CM gave a one-line order: "It has been ordered to denotify."

On June 2, 2010, under secretary-1, UDD, wrote: "It has been said that there is a legal problem to denotify 1 acre 30 guntas of land, while there is no problem to denotify 6 acre 5.5 guntas of land. The CM has ordered for denotification. But, he has not written anything about the area of the lands. So, should 7 acre 35.5 guntas of land be denotified? Or should we denotify 6 acre 5.5 guntas? However, 7 acre 35.5 gunta of land has been included in the draft notification." Ignoring it, the government on June 7, 2010, issued the order denotifying 7 acres 35.5 guntas.