1,200 sites sanctioned between May 9, 2024 and July 3, 2024

Mysore/Mysuru: When irregularities in the distribution of thousands of sites under various schemes, including the controversial 50:50 ratio, came to light in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh announced on July 1, 2024, at MUDA Office in Mysuru that the then MUDA Commissioner G.T. Dinesh Kumar and Secretary Shekhar had been transferred.

The Minister had instructed MUDA officers not to make any decisions on pending site distributions until further orders and barred MUDA from distributing new sites. Shockingly, despite this directive, the Commissioner’s Personal Assistant (PA)  Prashanth obtained over 500 Security Bond Sheets (MUDA site allocation letters numbering 14342 to 14842 under invoice number 899) on July 3.

These documents have been procured through the Right To Information Act. Now, questions are being raised about why the Commissioner’s PA obtained the Bond Sheets despite the clear directive from the Urban Development Minister and whom did he distribute them to.

What are Security Bond Sheets?

In 2007, a racket misused letters written by MUDA officers and forged their signatures to create fabricated site documents on lands and then sold them as genuine MUDA sites to unsuspecting customers. This racket flourished under the very nose of MUDA Officers.

However, after the racket was busted, Security Bond Sheets having fool-proof security and tamper-proof features were designed and MUDA started using them as allocation letters after 2007 as they cannot be tampered with.

These allotment letters or Security Bond Sheets have the features like the marks card of a University and each page has specially barcoded numbers so that once the code is scanned they can be distinguished from fabricated allocation letters.

Even before the scam came to light, between 16.5.2023 and 7.3.2024, as many as 760 Security Bond Sheets were procured by the MUDA Commissioner through his PA Prashanth. Between 9.5.2024 and 3.7.2024, 1,960 Security Bond Sheets were procured by the Commissioner’s PA and 1,200 sites were sanctioned in just one month and 24 days.