BENGALURU: Karnatala chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday said that the government has unearthed a scam worth a whopping Rs 400 crore at the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) over the last couple of months.
Replying on behalf of the state government on the debate over motion to give vote of thanks to the governor Vajubhai Vala, Yediyurappa said the government has taken serious note of the scam which has been happening within the BDA that has seen 53 officials being supposedly involved in the “hiding” of vacant sites and properties from the government purview.
“In fact, to give an account of the scam, we have recovered 300 acres of BDA properties which is estimated to be around Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500 crore in value,” said Yediyurappa.
The CM said the government has suspended 22 BDA officials, initiated department inquiry against 12 and issued show cause notices to 19 others.
“I have also told the senior bureaucracy to initiate criminal action against whom evidence has been collected for trying to scam the state,” said the CM.
Moving forward, Yediyurappa said the state is also in works to amend the BDA act of 1976 to transfer out the officials who have been employed by the authority for decades.
“As per the existing laws, no BDA official can be transferred out and has led to many of them cementing their posting and indulging in scams. We are going to bring an amendment to the BDA act and initiate transfer action from Bengaluru to other development authorities across the state,” he said.
On the sale of BDA corner sites, which was initiated last year to accrue additional revenue for the government and shore up the finances due to the Covid-19 lockdown impact, the CM said as many as 1,572 sites have been sold and accrued as much as Rs 1,422 crore in revenue.
“The legislature will be happy to note that some sites have been auctioned at over three times the pricing on the corner sites,” he added.
Meanwhile, spelling out the action taken by the government in developing Bengaluru, CM Yediyurappa said as many 32 roads have been taken up for development under the Smart City project with 27 to 28 of them under progress.
He said the deadline for completing the works on these roads have been fixed at May 2021.