The decision of the Belagavi City Corporation to sell prime land measuring 10 guntas near RTO Circle for only Rs. 54.45 lakh to the district Congress committee last year, allegedly in violation of government guidelines, came in for criticism at a meeting of the Belagavi City Corporation council here on Saturday.
Deepak Jamkhandi of the BJP, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, raised the issue when Kiran Sayanak, former Mayor and a senior member of the ruling Marathi group, spoke about the corporation auctioning an open site for a petrol station at Basaveshwar Circle (Goaves) without the consent of the council a few months ago.
Mr. Jamkhandi said that there were glaring instances of how the officials applied rules to suit their whims and fancies.
He said that the market value of the land allotted to the Congress office was at least Rs.7,000 per sq. ft and the corporation could have earned at least Rs. 7 crore. The civic body, however, sold it for a throwaway price.
However, Feroz N. Sait, MLA, maintained that the land was allotted to the party as per the direction of the government and it could not be debated in the corporation council meeting.
Mr. Sayanak and corporation commissioner G. Prabhu had an argument when the former alleged that the site was auctioned without the approval of the corporation as per resolution number 87. However, Mr. Prabhu defended the decision to auction the land on January 22 this year. He said that as per government guidelines, the civic bodies could not sell land but only auction it on lease to ensure regular revenue. Mr. Prabhu said that the contents of resolution number 157 deemed to have been accorded approval for auction of the site measuring 20x20 metres.
The commissioner said that the Indian Oil Corporation had initially requested the corporation to allot the land, but the company changed its mind later. The site was put up for auction and Sandeep Prakash Rane won the lease for a monthly rental of Rs. 2 lakh. Mr. Prabhu claimed that it was the highest revenue that the corporation would be getting from its properties in the city. The corporation was getting only Rs. 3,000 a month for the property till 1998. The corporation revised the rent and recovered from the lessee the revised rent.
Explanation sought
Mr. Sayanak wanted the commissioner to explain if the corporation had applied the same yardstick and revised the rents for all its other properties that had been leased out. The commissioner promised the chair to submit details of the status of rents of every single property of the corporation since 1998.
