‘CM interfered in land grab probe’in Bengaluru- Deccan Chronicle,It was obvious that they wanted to apply the brakes and press the accelator together-

‘CM interfered in land grab probe in bengaluru’-Speaking to Deccan Chronicle,It was obvious that they wanted to apply the brakes and press the accelator together-

• July 7, 2011/Bengaluru

July 6: Adding a fresh dimension to the land scams involving important government functionaries, former chairman of the task force for recovery of public land, V. Balasubramanian has ridiculed Chief Minister, B. S. Yeddyurappa and revenue minister, G. Karunakar Reddy for interfering ‘too much’ in his work whenever he tried his best to point out cases of land encroachment in and around the city.

Mr Reddy hit back saying Mr Balasubramanian had released the report without ‘officially’ submitting it to the state government. “How can he go to media? This is not the way to do it. To put it plainly, the task force has not submitted any report to us and so his so-called report does not have any validity,” he remarked.

Mr Balasubramanian had submitted his crucial report on encroachments to the government on Monday. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, the former additional chief secretary, said, “I felt they were not in favour of measures to prevent land encroachments. It was obvious that they wanted to apply the brakes and press the accelerator at the same time.”

Slamming both Mr Reddy and Mr Yeddyurappa, the former chairman said, “I can quote a specific case which is not mentioned in the report but is worth disclosing here. A Chennai-based real estate company constructed a three-km long compound wall for one of its properties in Devanahalli and encroached on 15 acres of land belonging to the horticulture department. When this was pointed out by us about a year ago, Mr Reddy took a decision which favoured the company and not the government.”

According to him, the task force formed a committee headed by the then additional regional commissioner, Satyavati, who presented a 60 page report on how the company had encroached on horticulture department land. “But she was transferred the day after the report was submitted. Acting swiftly on the report, Mr Reddy issued a stay order on any further investigation in the matter. Is this not connivance?” he asked and wondered why the minister had issued a statement against his report.

Quoting another instance which does not find mention in the report, Mr Balasubramanian said, “Mr Yeddyurappa behaved in a similar manner when the task force highlighted the encroachment of a lake by by a Hyderabad-based company which constructed an IT&BT Park in a 100 acre plot near Gollahalli in Anekal. When the Task Force tried to get the encroachers evicted, Mr Yeddyurappa himself wrote a letter stating that until he conducted an inspection, nothing should be done. He hasn't done this so far. By doing so, aren't they favouring encroachers?” Reacting to the charge, Mr Balasubramanian asserted that he had every right to release the report in his capacity as chairman.