Beware of conmen; do not buy sites without verifying with MUDA: Chairman

Mysore/Mysuru: Admitting that large scale corruption and shady deals have occurred in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in the last 20 to 30 years and like in many Government Offices many relevant pages have gone missing from files, MUDA Chairman H.V. Rajeev has assured of a probe by a State agency.

Star of Mysore had published a report on Apr. 23 under the title ‘Pages Missing From MUDA Files’ where it was highlighted that over 300 pages that contain 600 site allotment documents were torn away from the files and how officers are now scrambling to locate them to check the authenticity.

As mentioned in the Star of Mysore report, apart from 300 missing pages, over 216 ‘abnormal’ files have been detected where there are a lot of anomalies including missing documents and missing file notes.

Addressing a press conference at his Office this morning, Rajeev said, “In the special drive conducted on Apr. 23 and Apr. 24, over 216 ‘abnormal’ records have been detected and their authenticity is being determined by comparing the records with the records in the auditing Department. After the process, action will be taken accordingly and the people involved will be brought to book.”

Six teams have been formed under five MUDA Tahsildars and one Assistant Secretary and the overall in-charge has been given to the MUDA Secretary. The teams will unearth the mystery behind the missing pages of the files, he added.

The teams will ensure that no files are taken away from the record room without authorisation and without following the due process. The teams will ensure that none of the files in the record room are tampered with. Cataloguing, indexing and scanning of files are under progress and this part of digitisation will help safeguard records, the MUDA Chairman said.

When the ledgers of site distribution and site allotment were examined, it was detected that the site details of one particular layout have been entered in the ledgers of other layouts and also in the ledgers of auctioned sites. The details have also been entered in the ledgers containing the details of alternative sites distributed to the landlords who gave up the land for MUDA layouts, Rajeev revealed.

Blank pages in ledgers

There are some ledger pages where no entries have been made and it is not clear why certain pages of the ledgers have been kept blank. There are some ledgers where only the site numbers have been entered and there are no records to support this even in the record room. “These cases have been handed over to the technical team to physically check the layout plan and also examine the present status of the land. A suitable decision will be taken after the technical team will submit the report,” he added.

There have been irregularities in respect of distribution and sale of corner sites in various layouts. “Many site owners have got alternative sites as per their request. But after getting alternative sites, they must surrender the original sites and the allotment has to be cancelled. There are many cases where parties have retained both the original site and the alternative sites. Some have even sold the sites to other parties,” he said.

Warning to site buyers

In a word of caution to site buyers and residents, the MUDA Chairman said that people have to be cautious about site documents. “Come to MUDA Office with the site documents before purchase and verify if the site papers are fake or original or to identify previous transactions or to ascertain if the site has been sold to multiple parties. Beware of certain real estate people, agents and brokers as they might con you,” he warned.

MUDA Members Linganna, Lakshmidevi, K. Madesh, Naveen Kumar and MUDA Secretary Venkatraj were present at the press conference.