Didn’t denotify any land: Ex-CM Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: A day after chief minister Basavaraj Bommai accused him of denotifying land acquired to form Arkavathy Layout in Bengaluru, opposition leader Siddaramaiah insisted that he did not denotify “even a single gunta of land” while he was CM between 2013 and 2018 and dared Bommai to prove the allegations.
During his reply to the budget debate in assembly on Thursday, Bommai read select parts of the Justice Kempanna com - mittee report on alleged irregularities pertaining to the layout, and accused Siddaramaiah of denotifying 852 acres worth Rs 8,000 crore in violation of high court and Supreme Court orders. Bommai declared it a “scam” but refused to table the report in the house. Refuting accusations, Siddaramaiah said the Justice Kempanna report categorically states “that no land was denotified during my tenure”.
“It is not right for CM Bom - mai to lie to the house by read - ing select paragraphs of the report which he found conveni - ent,” Siddaramaiah said. “If I had done wrong, why did this government keep quiet for four long years? Bommai is making false allegations only because we raised questions over the 40% commission allegations.” He also lambasted Bommai for accusing him of creating the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to escape a probe by the Lokay - ukta on the alleged Arkavathy corruption case. “We created ACB as there were allegations of corruption against the son of then Lokayukta Justice Baskar Rao. Also, many states, including BJP-ruled ones, including Gujarat, created an ACB then,” Siddaramaiah said. He said even Bommai’s goernment defended the creation of ACB in the high court through the advocate general. “It shows their dual stand on the matter. Why did they not close ACB despite being at the helm for three years? It was the high court that ordered it closed, not BJP,” Siddaramaiah said.