Gloves off in battle between Bengaluru Development Authority Chairman, Commissioner  

BENGALURU: The cold war between the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) Chairman and Yelahanka MLA S R Vishwanath, and Commissioner H R Mahadev was out in the open when consecutive media briefings were held at the head office on Tuesday.

Mahadev dropped a bombshell that atleast 180 Correct Dimensional (CD) reports (which give details including dimensions of a specific plot) are being readied in a factory even when the sites were not ready, which he added would be exposed shortly.  

He told the media that the Chairman has no executive powers under the BDA Act whereas the Commissioner is the CEO of the BDA who is responsible for its functioning.

"The Chairman is expected to preside when the BDA Board meetings take place. That is his role. I cannot be asked to handover all BDA files as it is my responsibility," he explained.

In another hurriedly convened press meet, Vishwanath also hurled charges against the Commissioner. Among them were - lack of respect shown to him (Chairman) when he called on the Commissioner, allotment of alternative land to Bhavani Housing Society whose 30 acres of land were taken away 30 years ago to form the Banashankari Layout despite him asking for it to not be done, bulk allotment of sites in Hosakerahalli area and Binny Mills Society and non-cooperation in handing over all the corruption related cases to a Special Investigations Team to be formed by the State government.  

Negating all charges of alleged corruption by him, the Commissioner said, "In the last six months, we have taken many cases to logical conclusion with show cause notices issued to BDA officers and many suspended too which has never happened in the past. In another 6 months, I will be able to recover between Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 3,000 crore of BDA property across the City. My crackdown on corruption is not going down well with many." 

Explaining his crackdown against corruption, Mahadev said that the BDA was in the know of a 'CD factory' which has readied 180 CD reports of various sites across the City. "It is the handiwork of data entry operators with some engineers too. They will be exposed shortly and will go behind bars," he said.  

Referring to the Bhavani Society charge, the Commissioner insisted that he was adhering to the BDA Act.

"It is just to handover alternate sites to people whose land was taken over to form our layout. They have approached the Court too and the court has directed us to do so. The Transfer of Developmental Rights has not been completed nor have the sites been finalised yet," he said.  

Referring to the allegation over delay in handing over cases to the SIT, Mahadev pointed out that the Anti Corruption Bureau was probing into cases of corner sites and the officers were doing a good job. "Why should we hand it over to the SIT now? I want to take all the cases to their logical end," he stressed.  

Mahadev also billed as "100% lies" the charge made by the Chairman that he was disrespecting him. "I do not ignore even a common man who comes to my office to meet me. So why will I show disrespect to him?"  

This is not the first time we have witnessed hostility between two BDA heads -- like in the case of former Chairman S T Somashekhar and former Commissioner Rakesh Singh.