The Supreme Court appointed committee, which is looking into lawful constructions made on land notified for formation of Shivaram Karanth Layout, has submitted a report against Kodihalli Chandrashekar of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) for allegedly spreading misinformation about the formation of the layout and “virtually trying to negate the order of the Supreme Court.”
In March, the committee, headed by Justice (retired) A.V. Chandrashekar, had a served notice to the farmer leader for spreading misinformation and dissuading people from submitting documents of buildings built on the notified land. The notice was issued based on video footages and social media messages where he allegedly asked people not to share the details with the committee.
“After we served a notice to him (Mr. Chandrashekar), on March 24, he held a protest at Mourya Circle against the formation of the layout. On the day of the protest, Kodihalli claimed that the Chief Minister, responding to his requisitions, assured him that an appeal would be made before the Supreme Court through the Advocate General to drop the formation of the layout and this was reported by several media. However, BDA Chairperson and MLA of Yelahanka constituency, S.R. Vishwanath, who was present when Kodihalli met the Chief Minister, refuted the claims made by him and said that Chief Minister did not make any such promises,” he said.
Mr. Justice Chandrashekar further added that after the protest, some people displayed flexes in the villages notified for the layout ‘thanking’ the Chief Minister for dropping the plan for formation of the layout. “The act of Kodihalli Chandrashekar has led to confusion among people who were willing to submit documents before the committee. We are not getting documents from the general public as we had expected. He did not reply to notices served by the committee. We have submitted a report against him to the Supreme Court.” However, the head of the committee did not divulge the content of the report submitted to the Court, he said.
The committee maintained that as per the Supreme Court, formation of the layout will happen and the BDA is on the job of acquiring land. “Both the State government and the BDA had filed affidavit before the Court that all necessary steps will be taken for formation of the layout. We appeal to the general public to not believe in misinformation and come forward to submit the records to the committee," he said.
Only 1,850 applications received
The committee had estimated that prior to issuing the final notification for the formation of the layout (August 3, 2018), around 7,500 structures have been built on the notified land. It had asked the building owners to submit their documents at help centres or online mode. From March 1 onwards, the committee started accepting documents from the general public, but only 1,850 have submitted their documents out of which 350 uploaded documents online. The committee has now set April 30, 2020, as the deadline to submit the records. The chief of the committee said that the committee will involve village accountants, revenue inspectors and other Revenue department officials to educate people and submit records.
Replying to a question on what will happen to people who have bought lands or houses in the BDA approved layouts or DC converted layouts in the notified area, Mr. Justice Chandrashekar said “Supreme Court has already asked BDA to submit a detailed report on how compensation will be paid for those who bought sites in the revenue layout while forming layouts at Anjanapura, Banashankari and others. This is an indication that the Court will protect the interest of people who have legally bought properties and build houses prior to issuing the final notification.”
