Inquiry into the Special Land Acquisition Officer (SLAO) reports recommending the deletion of lands during the Arkavathi re-modified scheme is crucial to any probe into the irregularities, experts say.
The Karnataka High Court in 2005 passed an order laying down six guidelines for the deletion of land from the notification for Arkavathi Layout.
The then B.S. Yeddyurappa-led State government appointed four SLAOs on June 4, 2010, following the Supreme Court upholding the High Court order, in 2010.
The four officers were tasked with the “Re-Do” exercise, a term used in the 2005 High Court order, to conduct a re-survey of the land of those who had petitioned to BDA seeking deletion.
Then Advocate General S. Vijay Kumar in a legal opinion provided to Commissioner, BDA, on February 1, 2013, said that the proceedings of SLAOs “quasi judicial as distinguished from purely administrative.”
The letter further goes on to say: “If the objections of those, whose lands are acquired are upheld, the result would be that those lands are to be excluded from the development scheme.”
The defence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the BDA, has always been that they had no say in the re-modified scheme and they only followed the orders issued by the SLAOs'. Thus, the state government and BDA had last year blamed the SLAOs' for any irregularities. So if the SLAO reports are not gone into and accepted on face value, any probe into the irregularities will only be superficial, experts say.
The government appointed four Special Land Acquisition Officers on June 4, 2010
