Gadkari expected on Tuesday in the wake of land scam expose

Mtoday news

Bangalore, Dec. 4: BJP president Nitin Gadkari is arriving here on Tuesday to interact with party leaders and ministers in the wake of land scams and corruption charges against the ruling Karnataka government.

Mr. Gadkari will be holding a meeting at a private resort on the city outskirts with the state unit office bearers and later address ministers of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa?s cabinet, party sources said.
The BJP chief is also chairing a meeting of the legislature party, sources said.
Mr. Gadkari?s visit assumes political significance in the wake of internal trouble dogging the first ever BJP government in the south and allegations of nepotism, favouritism and corruption faced by Mr. Yeddyurappa and some of his ministerial colleagues.
The land scam charges claimed its first political victim in Katta Subramanya Naidu, who resigned as Housing Minister yesterday after Lokayukta registered an FIR against him and ten others including his son Jagadish in connection with irregularities that have occurred in the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board.
Stepping up its campaign against Mr. Yeddyurappa government, the Opposition Congress has filed a complaint before Lokayukta seeking probe into some of the ?dubious? land dealings.
Sources said Mr. Gadkari is expected to take stock of the prevailing situation and discuss measures to be taken to arrest the dent caused to the party?s image.


Yeddyurappa sends staff to inspect Gowda family land records in Hassan

Hassan Dec 4: Officials from the Chief Minister’s secretariat today inspected records of lands owned by former Prime Minister H D Devegowda’s family, as it visited the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Hassan.

 

The team, after interacting with officials and inspecting some records, directed that the documents be sent to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s office.

Yeddyurappa, under attack from JDS over alleged land scams, has vowed to bring out in the open, illegal properties reportedly owned by the Gowda family.

The Chief Minister recently alleged that the Gowda family has encroached 82.01 acres of government land and that it would be reclaimed and distributed among landless farmers.

Speaking to reporters in Hubli, former Chief Minister and state unit JDS President H D Kumaraswamy welcomed the probe ordered into lands held by his family in Hassan district.

"We are ready to face them. We are not afraid of all these enquiries as we have not looted the state. Let people know the truth," he said.

Kumaraswamy, who claims to have "exposed" several land scams against the BJP government, said the time has come for Yeddyurappa to resign, close on the heels of Katta Subramanya Naidu quitting as IT and BT minister.

"The Centre should dismiss the Yeddyurappa government without any loss of time," he said.
Naidu had resigned yesterday after the Lokayukta filed an FIR against him over a land deal