Illegal land allotment: Report names 6 ex-MLAs, 326 Karnataka officials

Mangalore Today News Network

Chikkamagaluru, October 1 2024: The investigation report in a case pertaining to illegal allotment of over 10,000 acres in Kadur and Mudigere taluks, has named 326 officials and six former MLAs from both the taluks. The investigation team has held the land regularisation committee responsible for the illegal land allotments.

The names of former Kadur constituency MLAs Y S V Datta, Belli Prakash, and former Mudigere constituency representatives Motamma, M P Kumaraswamy, and B B Ningaiah are listed in the investigation report submitted by a team of 13 tahsildars appointed by the government. The name of C T Ravi, who represented Sakharayapattana hobli in Chikkamagaluru constituency, is also included.

The report said “B L Prakash, who was the non-MLA president, and 23 members of the land regularisation committee from both taluks are listed. The committee has the significant responsibility of preserving government property and ensuring officials act legally. Therefore, the president and members of the committee are directly responsible for the approval of ineligible cases.”

A total of 326 personnel, including 23 tahsildars, 18 shirastedars, 48 revenue inspectors, and 104 village administrative officers, are listed in the report.

The illegal sanctioning of 10,598 acres have been categorised into three parts based on the nature of the illegality. The investigation team reported that 6,248 acres were allotted to ineligible. Among these, 1,802 acres of illegal sanctions are attributed to the committee president, involving cases with no application, applications received after the eligibility date, tampered application details, unauthorised division letters, granting exceeding eligibility,  records, and unauthorized sanctioning of gomala, ‘shendivana,’ and Amrit Mahal kavals without prior approval under the applications submitted under forms 50, 53, and 57.

For the remaining 8,796 acres, the responsibility is attributed to 326 personnel from case workers to tahsildars, involving procedural amendments, grants exceeding committee decisions, grants despite committee dissolution, approval without committee, missing files, and approvals without maps of the land.

Former MLA Y S V Datta said, “During my tenure, all committee meetings were held in public. In spite of it, if lands were granted to ineligible, I will abide by the decision taken by the government. While sanctioning shendivana, gomala, Amrit Mahal kaval land, I had brought it to the notice of then revenue minister Kagodu Thimmappa.”

Former MLA and MLC C T Ravi said, “I did not give any scope for illegality while I was representing Sakharayapattana of Kadur taluk.”