Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter THE POLITICS OF SAFEGUARDING CM COMMITS SCAMS AND AVOIDS LOKAYUKATA NET

BY. FIROZ.T.TOTANAWALA

THE BANGALORE METRO REPORTER 

 THE POLITICS OF SAFEGUARDING 

 CM COMMITS SCAMS AND AVOIDS LOKAYUKATA NET 

 The CM Yedurappa’s multifaceted; multi dimensional and well documented scams have become highly embarrassing for him has tried to buy time to bury the same. He has formed a judicial commission headed by Justice Padmaraj, a retired HC judge to probe the denotifications, allotments of lands for the last 16 years that is from 1995. It is another matter that Justice Padmaraj has his own reputation for fairness and balanced judgements. Most of the judgements of Justice Padmaraja that were challenged were upheld by the Supreme Court. Nobody can have any doubt about the fairness of the commission headed by Justice Padmaraja. 

 But that is no issue here. There was no necessity for having a judicial commission to probe the land denotifications since 1995 in first place. Any common man with ordinary level of sense will say that the probe will go on for years. But, Yedurappa has given only one year time to the commission to finish the probe and submit the report. This is humanly impossible as there are thousands of cases of denotifications of lands since 1995. 

 THE HISTORY 

 It is an open secret that till the year 2000, the denotifications were done on merits of the case and not monetary case. It was only after the year 2000 that the real estate in Bangalore flourished. The denotifications assumed importance particularly after the BDA started denotifying thousands of acres of lands for its layout and KIADB and KHB followed suit. 

 From the year 2006, when Yedurappa became Deputy with Kumaraswamy as the CM, the land prices soar to new heights. The real estate agents turned into developers and even the underworld entered the real estate in a big way. Politicians in power became their God fathers. It may be recalled that denotifications became a very lucrative business during Visweswaraya, Anjanapura, BSK 5th, 6th stage, Arkavathi layout formations. Many officials made hundreds of crores through denotifications. It continued during Dharam Singh regime and Kumaraswamy also provided ample opportunity. 

 From the moment, Yedurappa become Deputy CM, he became possessed with making a fortune. More than the CM, the Deputy Yedurappa made hundreds of deals with developers through his sons Raghavendra and Vijyendra. 

 THE RETURN OF JEWEL THIEF

 It is at this time that Yedurappa started his family enterprise. But before he could firmly establish his companies he lost power in 2007. However, he returned as a CM in 2008. And since then there is no stopping for his family enterprise in making crores and crores through denotifications/ allotments etc. Without investing anything these companies made crores of profit and there only investment is Yedurappa’s CM powers. 

 SAVING SKIN 

 But what prompted Yedurappa to order a judicial probe? The answer is very simple. When the unimaginable scams of Yedurappa in allotting highly valuable lands to his family members, denotifying the lands purchased by his family members etc started to get exposed one after the other, Yedurappa panicked. Even the leaders of his own party were shocked at his scams. To wriggle out of the situation, he got his family members to return the sites to BDA. Further, to stop the opposition from exposing his scams, he talked of a judicial probe on the denotifications of lands affected during the last 15 years. He made tall claims of holding a probe by a retired HC judge to silence the opposition. 

 While his scams issue raked up in Parliament, he had to take some action to insulate himself and also prevent the BJP High Command initiating any actions against him. In fact, the BJP had already decided to take action against him and summoned him to Delhi. But before leaving, he decided to constitute a Judicial commission to probe the land denotifications, allotments etc. And to take the revenge with Deve Gowda, he extended the probe to be conducted from 1995. The rest is history. Yedurappa arm twisted and even threatened the BJP High Command and avoided his sacking. He succeeded and Justice Padmaraj was nominated to the judicial enquiry and is given one year to complete the task. This is simply an impossible task as one cannot expect the commission to probe innumerable cases in just one year. 

 MAMMOTH TASK

 It is a fact that one can expect more than 2000 BDA denotifications from 1995 and about 1000 cases in KIADB. The commission has to probe each case on merits. It cannot club all the cases as each case has a different history. Firstly, the commission has to identify the cases, the beneficiaries and the officials responsible for the denotifications. It also has to identify the political force behind and issue notices to all the identified people and officials. They are also required to be given ample opportunity to defend them and their actions. There is the usual examination and cross examinations of the witnesses etc. There is also the question of availability of records. There may be cases where people concerned may be dead, and the officials have either died, retired or even untraceable. The commission cannot work round the clock. In a matter of one year, even if the commission has a little over 100 sittings, it will be a record. 

 Moreover, the commission needs a separate establishments, offices, courtrooms, staff etc and it would take at least two to three months for the commission to start the preliminary works provided the Government shows promptness and good intentions. As there are few Ministers including Yedurappa himself in such scams, the Government may not show much interest in the follow up actions to provide necessary infrastructure to the commission. 

This being the case, the commission needs at least 10 years to probe thousands of denotification cases. In some cases, the commission also has to conduct spot inspection. It is not that all the denotifications done so far are scandalous. Except few notorious cases, most of the denotification cases till 2006 have justifications. A fully developed revenue pocket cannot be acquired as the same cannot be used for forming a layout or sites. The land is not only unfit but even the acquisitions cost will be too high. Then there are practical difficulties in demolishing the buildings etc. In 2003, the BDA made a policy decision not to demolish residential buildings built on acquiring/acquired lands. In such cases, denotifications are the only way. The commission cannot overlook these practical problems and ground realities. 

In 1995, the Government implemented the regularization of the Government properties in a big way. In 2007, the Government passed a 1 time Akrama-Sakrama regularization scheme for revenue and unauthorized properties in the entire state. But is yet to be implemented. 

 To be frank, the denotifications assumed gigantic proportions only after 2002. It reached zenith in 2005 and for the last two and a half years assumed gigantic proportions and has even threatened the Government of Yedurappa. There is no denying the fact that from the last 5 to 6 years denotification has become a big business and also one of the means for the politicians to dole out largesse to their loyalists. 

 In all fairness, the commission should restrict it probe to the denotifications from 2005 and not from 1995. If it does start the probe from 2005, it can expose the demon in all its dimensions. Since the basis of set up of commission is to probe the denotifications by Yedurappa, it should at least start the probe from the period of Yedurappa. Probing from the year 2008 first is best suitable simply because all the politicians and officials are available in the same positions and even the records are easily accessible. In addition, most of the denotifications follow similar patterns and all can be clubbed together and probed. Once this is complete, the commission can go back to the past. 

 SIDELINING THE LOKAYUKTA

 Let us come to the practical aspect of the probe by the commission. It is true that Justice Santosh Hegde is already probing the KIADB land scams from the past few months. During the probe, the Lokayukta has already trapped Katta Jagadish, the corporator son of Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu. Further, even the involvement of the Minister and his wife is also established and the Lokayukta may file charge sheet anytime. 

 The Lokayukta has also arrested many officials in KIADB for their involvement in many scams. This sum up that Lokayukta is conducting a full fledged probe in these scams already. Now if the Commission takes up the probe it will be duplicating the futile exercise. 

 Besides, the Lokayukta is also taking up complaint against BSY in respect of denotifications, misuse, abuse of power and nepotism. There are 8 compalints before the Lokayukta against the CM in this regard. If the Judicial Commission takes up these cases, Lokayukta, though unlikely will have to close down the complaints against Yedurappa. 

 The Lokayukta Santosh Hegde is a retired Supreme Court judge and has almost finished the KIADB scam probe. If he continues he will finish up the story in a couple of months compared to the commission which will take years. 

 If Yedurappa was honest, he could have entrusted the probe of denotification to the Lokayukta himself. While Lokayukta is scheduled to retire in few months, it would not have prevented him to take up the probe. The Government also could have given him an extension for the cause of the probe. 

 But who cares? BSY is afraid of Santosh Hegde and wants to save his skin by delay tactics. The best option therefore for him is to opt for a judicial probe and that too order it to be conducted from 1995, which will take years together to finish. God save Karnataka!