Belur MLA K.S. Lingesh announced that he would hang himself if it is proved that he violated any rule as head of the taluk bagair hukum committee.
Bagair hukum refers to cultivation of government land without formal sanction by the administration.
The Janata Dal (Secular) MLA was reacting to allegations of irregularities in sanctioning land to bagair hukum cultivators in Belur taluk of Hassan district in Karnataka.
A special court in Bengaluru recently ordered registration of a case against the MLA and a few officers following a complaint by an RTI activist.
Mr. Lingesh said the complaint was filed by the RTI activist in Kolar based on the Sakleshpur Assistant Commissioner’s report related to land sanctions cleared since the year 2016. However, there were no specific cases involving the files he cleared as head of the committee.
“During my tenure, I cleared files relating to 720 acres, and the beneficiaries are 562 members. All of them are residents of Belur taluk. No outsider got land sanctioned, as alleged in the complaint,” he said.
The MLA said, along with him, three other members appointed by the BJP government worked with him on the committee, and the deliberations were carried out as per the law.
“There is a ban on sanctioning land within a 3-kilometre radius of Belur town. The committee followed the rule, and no application related to that area was accepted,” he said.
The MLA said the allegations were being made against him for political reasons, before the Assembly elections in Karnataka on May 10.
