In 2001, the market rate for land in his village was about Rs. 35 lakh an acre. Yet, Balasubramaniam (60) willingly sold his fertile four-acre farmland to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for a mere Rs. 6 lakh an acre.
For each acre lost, the BDA promised Mr. Balasubramaniam and hundreds of farmers like him a 2,400-sq ft plot in the new layout it was planning to form on their farms.
Once covered by lush mango orchards and vineyards, Mr. Balasubramaniam's green expanse has since disappeared into one of the BDA's largest layouts — Banashankari 6th Stage.
“After being sold and resold during the height of the city's real estate boom, the plots here became more valuable than gold and created many millionaires,” said Kumar (45) another land-loser.
Long wait
Today, a 2,400-sq ft plot here is worth at least Rs. 35 lakh. But a large section of farmers, who sold their land dirt cheap still wait in vain for the BDA to deliver on its promise to compensate them with sites.
“When I approached the BDA's Assistant Commissioner for my site in the first week of March, he said he would make the allotment in one day if I agreed to sell the site to him for Rs. 15 lakh,” alleged Mr. Balasubramaniam.
The Assistant Commissioner allegedly told him that if he did not agree, he would not get even the Rs. 15 lakh.
Similar stories
Several other farmers had similar stories to narrate at a press conference organised here on Friday by B.M. Shivkumar, RTI activist and president of the Jayaprakash Narayan Vichara Vedike. All of them said they were being coerced to pay between Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 15 lakh to BDA officials as bribe.
Mr. Shivkumar, who claims to have identified 300 such farmers, said: “All of them have been made to suffer because they refused to pay bribe to get what is rightfully theirs.”
Alleging that the BDA's Deputy Commissioner, Land Acquisition Officer as well as the Superintendent of Police of the agency's enforcement wing were part of this bribery network, Mr. Shivkumar produced official documents to prove his claim.
Dodging transfer
One document shows that the present BDA Commissioner ordered the transfer of BDA Superintendent of Police M.D. Mallikharjuna on September 18, 2010 after it was discovered that he was part of the racket. But he managed to return to the same post using the influence of the Chief Minister by September 21, 2010.
Calling on the Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde to investigate the matter, Mr. Shivkumar said: “There are hundreds of complaints against senior BDA officials pending before the Lokayukta. But no action has been taken yet.”
All attempts made by The Hindu to get a reaction from the BDA Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena failed.
