The State Congress on Sunday rebutted charges made by the entire Opposition against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with regard to alleged denotification of lands acquired for the Arkavathi Layout in Bengaluru and gave a clean chit to the Sate Government in its 18-page report on the issue.
The BJP and JD (S) already had released reports on the controversial Arkavathi Layout alleging that the Chief Minister was directly involved in the denotification of lands in the layout.
C.M. Dhananjaya, chairman, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Legal and Human Rights Cell, released the booklet titled “Arkavathi: Reality Report” and said the Opposition has been misleading the public by levelling false charged against Mr. Siddaramaiah. The booklet, he said would be distributed to all district Congress functionaries to explain the ground reality to the public.
Mr. Dhananjaya said on Monday the booklet would be submitted to the judicial commission headed by H.S. Kempanna which was probing alleged denotification of lands in the layout.
It said 198.20 acres were denotified in the layout during the tenure of former Chief Ministers H.D. Kumaraswamy, the President Rule, B.S. Yeddyurappa and D.V. Sadanandaga Gowda. He said there was no substance in Opposition’s charges against Mr. Siddaramaiah and charges had been levelled to dethrone him from the office.