Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said that he would quit politics if Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar proved charges of corruption against him.
“I am ready to face probe from any agencies into assets of mine and my family members. I was not involved in corruption during three decades of my political career. I am ready to retire from politics if he (Mr. Shettar) proves the charge of corruption against me," Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
Soon after the Legislative Assembly was adjourned, the Chief Minister said that 984 acres of land acquired for formation of the Arkavathi Layout by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has been denotified during the BJP-JD(S) coalition government and BJP Government. The Jagadish Shettar government had denotified 422 acres. The former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa denotified 198.20 acres. His government has not denotified an inch of land, Mr. Siddaramaiah claimed.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said the “re-modified scheme of Arkavathi Layout” was implemented after the Congress came to power and it was based on the Karnataka High Court orders.
On Mr. Shettar’s charge that he had denotified 541 acres in June 2014 for raising the election funds, Mr. Siddaramaiah said "I have not involved in corruption. In future too, I will not involve in corruption." But how much funds has the BJP raised by denotifying 541 acres, he asked.
Though it was decided to form the Arkavathi layout on 3750 acres, a preliminary notification was issued in 2003 for 3839.12 acres. The final notification was issued in 2004 for 2760 acres and later revised notification for 1766.07 acres, he said.
Opposed to CBI
He said a Central Bureau of Investigation probe would take long time and it would delay the allotment of nearly 5,000 BDA sites for eligible beneficiaries. However, the Government was ready to order a probe either by the Criminal Investigation Department or a committee of the Legislative Assembly. “We are also ready to order a judicial probe into BJP’s allegations of denotification of 983 acres acquired for the Arkavathi Layout,” he said.
Eye on bypolls
He said that the BJP has been raking up rape cases and land denotification issues to gain political mileage during run-up to the by-elections to three seats of the Legislative Assembly to be held in August.
Shettar’s missive
Mr. Shettar said he too would retire from politics if the Chief Minister proved a charge of denotification of 422 acres land during his term. “I am ready to face a probe. Let the government order a CBI probe,” he said.
He said that the Siddaramaiah Government has denotified 983 acres by violating six guidelines issued by the High Court of Karnataka. Lands in 16 villages surrounding Kempe Gowda International Airport, Bangalore, have been denotified, he alleged.
