The State Government has constituted three teams to probe alleged irregularities committed by 81 house building cooperative societies in Bangalore and 31 societies in Mysore.
The Department of Cooperation has issued notice to the Vyalikaval House Building Cooperative Society and the Karnataka State Legislature Employees' Housing Cooperative Society in Bangalore for supersedence of their managements.
Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Minister for Cooperation Laxman S. Savadi said the teams comprising officials of the rank of Joint Registrar, District Registrar and Assistant Registrar from the Cooperation Department would look into acquisition of land, formation and allotment of sites and financial irregularities, if any, by office-bearers, members and non-members of the societies.
The officials have sought two months' time to submit detailed reports on the affairs of the housing societies in the two cities.
Mr. Savadi said, if necessary, criminal cases would be booked against office-bearers of societies that had misappropriated land allotted by government agencies and/or misused funds.
The audit reports of the societies and reports submitted by the three teams would be compared to avoid favouritism in the reports submitted by the teams, he said.
An employee of the legislature secretariat told The Hindu that several lapses had occurred in the formation of layouts on 15 acres at Laggere and 50 acres at Kodige village in Yelahanka by the Legislature Employees' Housing Cooperative Society. The employee alleged that plan approvals from the Bangalore Development Authority had not been obtained for both the layouts.
Also judicial society
Mr. Savadi said the department was also looking into the affairs of the Karnataka Judicial Employees' House Building Cooperative Society established in 1983 to provide houses to the employees of the Judicial Department. The society has allegedly committed several irregularities in acquisition of land, approval of layout plan and site allotment.
Several lapses
The report by the Joint Legislature Committee on Encroachments in Bangalore Urban District (2007), headed by A.T. Ramaswamy who was then a Janata Dal (S) MLA, had found several lapses in the acquisition of land and allotment of sites, the Minister said.
Irregularities on the part of the Vishwa Bharati House Building Cooperative Society came to the surface following efforts by department officials to probe lapses in the formation of the layout, the Minister added.
