BJP claims Siddaramaiah denotified land illegally

BENGALURU: The state BJP unit has levelled yet another allegation of illegal denotification against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Wednesday. However, court documents accessed by Express indicate that the allegations seem to be on flimsy grounds, with BJP leaders seeking more time to come up with a clear explanation. As of now, the case referred in the allegation is still being heard by the Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, R Ashoka, senior leader and former deputy chief minister, said the alleged denotification was made for a project expected to come up near Lalbagh in the city.

He said that the 2.39 acre land, bearing survey numbers 27/1, 28/4, 28/5 and 28/6, which was originally designated as a park or public space, was denotified to favour a private developer identified as Ashok Dhariwal. He demanded the state government to cancel the denotification of the sites, which is attached to Lalbagh. However, a High Court judgment dated July 24, 2015, based on writ petitions (filed by one Preethi Ranka and seven others), following a legal dispute, had ordered that the property belonged to the petitioners.

The order noted that as per Section 69 of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1951, land identified under the Master Plan should be acquired within five years, failing which the designation of the land use to parks and open spaces “is deemed to have lapsed”.  

The petitioners had approached the court on the grounds that the land which was “designated for use for residential purpose under the Revised Comprehensive Development Plan, 1995”, was designated to use for parks and open spaces as per revised master plan, 2015, which came into effect from June 25, 2007.
BJP spokesperson N R Ramesh said their contention was with the state government order dated November 18, 2014, which approved the change of land use for payment of `5.46 lakh. The order, however, according to the 2015 High Court verdict, was withdrawn as “such change of land use was not permissible”, according to a previous HC order.

The order also went on to rap the state government and BDA for not completing the acquisition proceedings of the said land “within 5 years from June 25, 2007, the date of coming into force of revised Master Plan, 2015.” “Sequentially, it is declared that petitioners are permitted to put to use the land in question, for residential purpose,” the order added.

However, according to BJP the writ petition was dismissed by the High Court on July 6, 2017 following which the appellant has approached the High Court. Ramesh, to these questions, sought three days to come up with additional documents to prove his charges.