K'taka CM refuses to yield on MUDA scam claims

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Amid a controversy over land allotment, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stood his ground on Thursday even as the Opposition BJP demanded his resignation over alleged culpability in the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam.

The saffron party wants the case to be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

“I have handed over seven cases (to the CBI as CM including those in his last term). This is not a case that is appropriate for the CBI (to probe),” Siddaramaiah told mediapersons.

Leader of the Opposition (LOP) R Ashoka maintains the irregularities amount to a staggering Rs 4,000 crore. The scam is rooted in the 50:50 scheme under which MUDA allocates alternative sites or 50 per cent of the developed sites to people who’ve lost land to the body.

Opponents of the scheme allege that in many cases, alternative plots handed to land losers are worth far more than what they lost, resulting in massive losses to MUDA. The allegation against Siddaramaiah is that his wife received a plot of greater value in Mysuru city’s Vijayanagara locality in lieu of lost land.

The CM confirmed that his brother-in-law, one Mallikarjun, purchased three acres and 16 guntas of land in Kesare village near Mysuru city’s Outer Ring Road and gifted it to his sister and Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvati.

However, MUDA allegedly took over the land for a layout without compensating Parvati and she was allotted an alternative site in 2021. The CM said the BJP was in power when the allotment happened.