A forensic investigation by a person like Justice N. Santosh Hegde only can bring out the truth

A case of closing the stable gate after the horses have bolted!

The good news for all the admirers and loyalists of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is that the High Court, which heard the petition with regard to Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) sites scam on Aug. 19, has adjourned it for hearing on 29th of this month.

It is very obvious when the MUDA scam broke out first in Mysuru Mithra on June 25, 2024, and also in its sister publication Star of Mysore the same evening, and thereafter the scam focussed on Siddaramaiah, the bad news spread like wildfire.

CM Siddaramaiah must have thought that in such situations, the offence is the best defence and decided to take on Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot for having issued him a show-cause notice and then for having given permission to prosecute him.

However, it was only a temporary relief for Siddaramaiah. The Damocles’ sword will be hanging over his head till the 29th of this month when the Court will give its decision on Siddaramaiah’s petition. Siddaramaiah at present is in the waiting room of the Court.

It is possible that Siddaramaiah’s political future depends on the decision of the Court. Therefore, no matter how much bravado he displays in public with his denial of involvement in the scam, being a human it is natural, he must be undergoing anxious moments.

It is for that reason he has hired the famous Supreme Court senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal to argue his case. Probably, he must have thought the senior advocates of Karnataka might not be able to handle his case effectively. Or it could be the choice of Congress High Command.

Now to match these two advocates from Delhi, the respondents in the case, the Special Secretary of the Governor, too drafted the service of well-known legal luminary Solicitor General of  India Tushar Mehta.

In the circumstances, this legal battle between the giants is going to make legal history in the politics of the country because certain Constitutional issues may also be discussed.

All said and done, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is neither an ordinary politician nor a common CM we have seen. Ever since he entered politics over four decades ago in the 80s, he has been enjoying political power in one form or the other. As we know, in the Indian political ecosystem, politicians with a strong caste base have been succeeding in elections as well as in occupying positions of power. In India, under democracy, he who is born into a major caste is bound to make it good in politics. So it is with Siddaramaiah.

As for Siddaramaiah in his long political journey, he has seen many ups and downs but has never been a loser. This has given him immense self-confidence which is clear in his body language.

It is a fact that he is not only a brave heart among Karnataka politicians but also an uncompromising fighter. Probably, when he became the CM for the second term it must have boosted his ego so much that he never imagined one day he would face this kind of Himalayan challenge. Siddaramaiah’s honesty and credibility, no doubt, are dented. Ever since this scam broke out, he has been bragging that there has not been a single black spot in his  political career. Now many black spots are visible.

Unfortunately with the present scam, he seems to have scored a self-goal.

Whatever it be, Siddaramaiah, a man of many decades of political experience, should have foreseen the coming events. When the news of the MUDA sites scam broke out, Siddaramaiah should have seen the smoke and doused the fire. Instead, he began to justify the action taken by MUDA under its 50:50 sites scheme and the allotment of 14 sites in the premium layouts to his wife.

Today, the MUDA scam has assumed a demonic proportion and we are seeing a new scam every day in the news media. The two former MUDA Commissioners Dr. D.B. Natesh and G.T. Dinesh Kumar are said to be the masterminds.

Now, let’s come to MUDA in particular. From the day Karnataka Urban Development Authorities (Allotment of sites as compensation for land acquisition) Rules 2009 came into force, the MUDA literally became the private property of the unscrupulous Commissioners. It is alleged they acted in cohort with their political masters.

It is pertinent here to remember that in earlier days, the Commissioners of CITB (City Improvement Trust Board) and MUDA used to be IAS Officers but they were replaced by KAS Officers. Why? The answer is not far to seek when we look at the scams tumbling out of MUDA as in the present case.

It is most unfortunate that MUDA, headed by its Chairman, who is a politician and its Board Members being MLAs, MLCs and other nominated persons, who are to help Mysureans seeking house sites, did not discharge their responsibilities honestly and sincerely. Instead they have turned MUDA into a cesspool of corruption in nexus with the MUDA Commissioners and Officers.

 In the early days of CITB, now MUDA, the land for the formation of layouts was to be acquired from the farmers by giving compensation in the form of money. Later, due to political pressure, the land loser was given money as compensation and along with it a site after the land was developed. This site is known as the ‘land loser’s site’.

As years passed by, again due to dirty politics of greed and avarice, the Government decided to allow private individuals or parties to buy land from the land owners and develop layouts subject to terms and conditions laid down by MUDA.

Once this policy was adopted, MUDA lost interest in developing new layouts. As for politicians and officials, they were well looked after by the private players.

However, because MUDA sites cost less compared to the sites sold by private players, the middle and lower class people seeking sites continued to apply to MUDA paying advance amounts.

It is learnt, more than 86,000 people have already registered with MUDA for sites. But, with MUDA not developing any new sites other than the ongoing    ones, people waiting for sites are literally left in the lurch.

According to a former Chairman of CITB, D. Madegowda, there could still be a lakh of stray sites in different MUDA layouts. Some of these sites could be the ones that are now being allotted to the ‘land losers’ by the Commissioners of MUDA under the 50:50 scheme which has led to the present scam.

Since MUDA was not able to compete with the private players in purchasing land for developing layouts, someone hit upon the novel idea of giving the land loser certain number of sites as compensation instead of money.

First, it was decided to give 40 percent of the sites to the land-loser, with MUDA keeping the 60 percent. Later, again for reasons of appeasement of the farmer-land owner, the sharing of sites was capped at the ratio of 50:50. From now on the loot began, and the great robbery of MUDA land gained momentum which finally got exposed when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah got involved.

In the beginning, I thought this scam was like any other corruption scam in any Government department. However, when the Chief Minister himself came to be involved in this scam, it gained special importance and the whole country began to take note of it. It is said, more than Rs. 5,000 crore worth of MUDA sites have been given away under this 50:50 scheme fraudulently. Now the question is: Can the Government ever be able to get those sites back or recover the value of those sites from those responsible for the loss?

Primarily, two MUDA Commissioners, namely Dr. D.B. Natesh and G.T. Dinesh Kumar, sold these sites under the 50:50 scheme between 2020 and 2024 when B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai were the Chief Ministers and also during the current tenure of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Recently, I was talking to a former Chairman of MUDA and learnt that the Commissioner of MUDA is the most powerful man overshadowing the Chairman. The MUDA Chairman only decides the subject of the meetings, presides over the Board meetings and signs the minutes of the meetings and the resolutions passed. Thereafter, the Commissioner carries out the administration as per the resolutions passed independently. He is the king.

At a press meet last week, A.H. Vishwanath, MLC, suggested that Siddaramaiah’s wife return all 14 sites to MUDA immediately and later accept the compensation as per the law. This would be appreciated by the people and Siddaramaiah would become a role model of a Chief Minister, he said. A good advice but…!

Whatever it be, there is no clarity in what Siddaramaiah has been telling the media about his alleged involvement in the scam. Surprisingly, right from the beginning not only he has been in a denial mode but has been justifying the allotment of those 14 sites in the premium layout.

At one time, he even said that if MUDA gave him Rs. 62 crore, he would return those 14 sites! This one statement by him has sent a wrong message to the people.

It is significant here to realise that there is a grey area in the dealings of the 3.16 acres of land owned by Siddaramaiah’s wife. There are doubts about the manner in which the sale deed related to the land was executed, the manner in which land conversion was made, the way this already converted and developed land was issued RTC as an agricultural land, etc., leading to the very legality of these transactions.

There is also a question about this MUDA scam not being allowed to be discussed in the Assembly. Why?

Finally, in the present MUDA scam, all three political parties are involved. If so, why only target Siddaramaiah and not others who have also benefited under the 50:50 scheme?

MUDA is a quasi-Government organisation and the Government has control over its functioning. Therefore, the scam is a reflection on the inefficiency of the government and the rampant corruption.

The best is for the Government to conduct a forensic investigation into the allegations of corruption, loss of crores of rupees to MUDA and the Government, and misuse of power by MUDA Commissioners from the year 2020 to 2024 by the former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N. Santosh Hegde.

The Great MUDA Robbery

It is common knowledge that corruption has been there in government administration in one form or the other. In MUDA (earlier CITB), corruption was there but it was like pick-pocket, not of the present magnitude.

The government’s policy of 50:50 ratio, in the matter of compensating the land owner whose land has been acquired by MUDA (giving 50% sites of the developed land as incentive to the land losers instead of money), came into force as per the resolution taken in the MUDA Board Meeting on 20.11.2020. But this Board’s resolution had to be approved by the government before MUDA could implement this 50:50 ratio, incentive policy, according to the present MUDA Chairman K. Marigowda.

But when the Chairman took charge in March 2024, he found that the MUDA Commissioner has already been issuing sites to land losers under the 50:50 ratio scheme without government’s permission which is illegal. So K. Marigowda writes a note to MUDA Commissioner G.T. Dinesh Kumar asking him not to allot sites without getting the approval of that resolution from the MUDA Board Meeting and from the government.

However, by this time on 30.12.2021 when there was BJP government, 14 sites under 50:50 ratio were already allotted and given to the wife of CM Siddaramaiah. Likewise many other ‘so-called’ land losers too were allotted and given possession of sites in old premier layouts like Vijayanagar, Dattagalli, J.P. Nagar, R.T. Nagar, etc. and one P.S. Nataraj (retired Assistant Director (AD), Town Planning, MUDA) had given a complaint to the government. There were other complaints too and the Government Under-Secretary has issued a show-cause notice to the Commissioner. But the Commissioner continued his site allotment-spree without let or hindrance. Even the Mysuru Deputy Commissioner’s orders in this regard were ignored. So the loot continued unabated till it blew over when the name of Siddaramaiah’s wife popped up and the Opposition made it a huge controversy.

What the future holds for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, let us wait and watch.—KBG

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