Atul chaturvedi; Monday, November 22, 2010
B M Shivakumar, a textile shop owner from Kengeri Satellite Town, has brought the mighty B S Yeddyurappa at the brink of ouster, and south India’s first BJP government on the verge of collapse.
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| 43-year-old Shivakumar’s RTI forays exposed the CM’s involvement in land scams |
The 43-year-old Shivakumar’s right to information (RTI) forays into various BDA site allotments made by Yeddyurappa under his discretionary quota exposed the chief minister’s nepotism in the alleged land scam. A few months ago, armed with documents procured through RTI applications, the shopkeeper made it public how the CM had given away sites in prime localities at dirt cheap rates to his near and dear ones. Bangalore Mirror first got a whiff of the scam in the first week of July, when it got copies of the documents from Shivakumar, and subsequently the issue has snowballed into a major controversy which has put the noose firmly around Yeddyurappa’s neck.
Shivakumar started showing interest in BDA site allotments two years ago, when Yeddyurappa promised in the assembly that all MPs and legislators will be given sites in Bangalore.
“I kept wondering why should MLAs be given sites only in Bangalore, that, too, at a time when more than two lakh people had been waiting for several years to get sites from BDA,” Shivakumar told Mirror in July. He filed his first RTI application with the BDA in February 2009. “I got the list of MLAs who were given sites and was appalled to see how plots worth around Rs 2 crore had been given away for less than Rs 10 lakh by the CM under the G-category.” With his suspicions aroused, the shopkeeper started filing RTI applications with the BDA every three months, and kept updating his database.
“I was shocked to see the CM’s son, Raghavendra, getting a prime plot in RMV II Stage barely a few weeks after becoming the MP from Shimoga.
“Even Bangalore North MP D B Chandre Gowda’s daughter was allotted a site,” he said. “Even more shockingly, the documents showed that Yeddyurappa’s sister and other relatives, too, had been given sites.”
Though Shivakumar has not received any threats or inducements to keep quiet, his life has not been the same. He said, “Earlier, BDA officials used to easily part with information sought by me under the RTI Act. But now, if they see my name, they direct lower-rung officials to delay the process.” To sidestep this problem, Shivakumar has started asking his friends, who have come together under the banner of Jayaprakash Narayan Vichara Vedike, to file RTI applications to BDA. In fact, it was Shivakumar who had been instrumental in exposing the alternative sites scam in BDA a few years ago.
Now, with the CM’s kin stating that they would return the sites, Shivakumar said it was a positive development. “It would be better if the discretionary quota (allotment of plots by the CM under the G-category) is totally banned. It will ensure that the official-tout-politician nexus does not have a free run in making a goldmine through illegal means,” he said.
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