In the midst of the raging fire in the administration of Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) regarding arbitrary, gratuitous and illegal allotment of house sites under its ambiguously worded 50:50 scheme to compensate the land-losers, we heard an NGO, Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP), crooning about a 29-year-old Revenue Department scam that was buried in the DC’s Office archives, ignored by the successive Governments — Congress, JD(S) and BJP.

In politics, at the time of any such financial scam, all political parties show fraternal feelings and tacitly help each other. But, they accuse the guilty from public platforms and in press conferences. That is the history of the scam the MGP is now screaming about and wanting to exhume the buried body of the Report famously known as “T.M. Vijay Bhaskar Report.”

There is a strong apprehension among the citizens of Mysuru that the present scam relating to the deceptive 50:50 scheme of MUDA will also face the same fate as that of “T.M. Vijay Bhaskar Report.” The Founder-Convenor of MGP,  Dr. Bhamy V. Shenoy, an irrepressible fighter for social causes, specially where the Government is involved, told me after giving me a photocopy of the Report, that if the people and the press (media) do not pursue the deceitful 50:50 scheme of MUDA scam, this too will be buried in the archives of the MUDA’s Office. After all, other political parties are also privy to passing that motivated resolution in the MUDA Board meeting. Moreso, because the Chief Minister himself is involved.

Be that as it may, now the MGP is wanting to revive the “T.M. Vijay Bhaskar Report” of 1995 and somehow compel the Government to act on it, punish the guilty (whose number is legion) and recover an estimated loss of Rs. 62,52,55,200 to MUDA. Is it possible? Is it not like beating a dead horse? In economics, there is an aphorism “let bygones be bygones” and this too will naturally belong to the bygone era.

The origin of this, much talked about but not acted upon, Report is in an official letter or direction () sent to B.T. Rajanna, KAS, Special Land Acquisition Officer, Kabini Reservoir Project, Mysuru, on 16.1.1995 by the then Mysuru Deputy Commissioner (DC) T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, IAS.

The letter directed B.T. Rajanna to examine () Khatas issued in violation of rules in some Mandal Panchayats coming under the Mysuru Taluk. In two-and-a-half-months (on 31.3.1995) Rajanna submits a detailed bulky report to the DC T.M. Vijay Bhaskar.

The trigger for DC’s direction to investigate and report on the issue of Khatas is in a complaint dated 26.9.1994 given to the DC by one Bettegowda, an agriculturist, saying that the Hinkal Mandal Panchayat Secretary had unofficially (C£À¢üPÀÈvÀªÁV) converted his land in Hebbal village (Sy. No. 238:A) into sites and though there were no houses, he had given Khatas of those sites to 100-150 persons. So, an investigation was ordered by the DC regarding lands in Hinkal, Yaraganahalli, Siddalingapura and Srirampura under a Three-Member Committee of officials headed by B.T. Rajanna, KAS. The Report on Page-2 stated that there were 5,896 illegal sites and buildings in the jurisdiction of these ‘Grama Tanas’ as against 4,000 legal sites.

The Report, written in total clarity, is proof the Three-Member Committee headed by B.T. Rajanna, KAS, has done an honest and patriotic duty. Unfortunately, our political rulers have turned a blind eye to this Report despite knowing there was so much of corruption and illegality causing a loss of Rs. 62,52,55,200 to the people of Karnataka who elected these politicians to rule us.

The Report says that the Committee was not asked to look into the income and expenditure of the Panchayats and so it has excluded it from its investigation. However, the Report says, in passing, that if a forensic auditing is done it would reveal a loss of lakhs     of rupee to these Panchayats due to irregularities and embezzlement.

The Report has clearly named the Secretaries of: 1. The Past Hinkal Mandal Panchayat  Secretary; 2. Past Siddalingapura Mandal Panchayat Secretary; 3. Past Yaraganahalli Mandal Panchayat Secretary; 4. Past Udbur Mandal Panchayat Secretary and all the Mandal Panchayat Bill Collectors as directly involved in this land scam and loot of the Government funds.

The Report recommends abolition of Mandal Panchayats that have shrunk in size due to MUDA entering its jurisdiction and also for a ‘Land Vigilant Squad’ as in Bengaluru to prevent construction of unauthorised buildings and make the Squad accountable for such illegal construction. What a pragmatic suggestion. But our dishonest, corrupt politicians do not want this. However, what prevents the honest politicians of all parties from fighting for it?

Reading the Report, one is left wondering, to begin with, that we do have such honest and committed Officers like B.T. Rajanna, KAS and his two Committee Members, G.N. Basavaraju, Special Tahasildar, Land Ceiling, Mysuru and G.S. Gurusiddaiah, Personal Secretary to the Administrative Officer, Zilla Panchayat, Mysuru.

At the same time one is left worried that he has to deal with this kind of incompetent Revenue and Housing Administration. The farmers and house site seekers in villages will always be at the mercy of the local corrupt politicians.

It is, therefore, not surprising that this Committee had recommended an investigation against the four Secretaries mentioned above by the Karnataka Lokayukta or CoD. Well, when the government did not look into this Report and ignored it, where is the question of handing over the case to Lokayukta or the CoD? And nobody went to the Court to file a PIL.

However, the basic question seems to hang fire: What relief did the complainant Bettegowda get from the DC?

Readers may recall that a couple of years ago our MLAs were demanding to amalgamate these four Mandal (Gram) Panchayats covered in the “T.M. Vijay Bhaskar Report” — Hinkal, Udbur (Srirampura), Siddalingapura and Yaraganahalli — to Mysuru City Corporation and call it (like in Bengaluru – BBMP) Bruhat Mysuru Mahanagara Palike (BMMP).

Reason: Those who bought sites, built asbestos-sheet shelters and obtained Khatas from Panchayats would get the civic amenities like road, light, UGD, water etc., once these layouts come under BMMP. The politicians and the local land mafia, who sold sites to the people, in collusion with the Revenue officials, can thus blame the BMMP when pestered for help by those who bought the illegal sites from them.

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