CM threatens to expose VVIP ‘land grabbers’

CM threatens to expose VVIP ‘land grabbers’
Wednesday June 20 2007 13:56 IST

BANGALORE: Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said here on Tuesday that the government would announce within 15 days the names of 282 VVIPs who had grabbed government lands in and around Bangalore city.

Kumaraswamy told media persons after holding talks with members of cabinet committee constituted to identify government land encroached in and around Bangalore City that the government had given a freehand to the committee to go ahead with its plans.

The committee can go ahead with initiating action as per law to punish the culprits irrespective of their positions in society.

“We will not spare anyone, be it a politician or official. Whoever has grabbed the government land will have to face the music,” Kumarswamy said.

He said he had instructed the committee to be stern while dealing with “bigwigs” and those who developed layouts in government lands but go slow on those innocents who had purchased sites on these illegal layouts.

Seeking to clarify the misconception about government’s move to auction lands, he said,

“Of the 8,000 acres of recovered lands, only 900 acres will be auctioned and about 4,000 acres will be handed” over to various government agencies like the Bangalore Development Authority, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike and Housing Board to utilise the lands for developing layouts for low income people, truck terminals and other public purposes.

He said that about 650 acres of land was available with the government for auction and would auction it as and when the government got highest bids.

To a question on opposition from some quarters to the auctions, he said there was no need to give importance to such opposition.

“If we don’t auction the land, where is the guarantee that the future governments won’t hand over the lands to somebody,” he asked.

When asked about the lands being purchased in auction by only three developers, Kumaraswamy said that the government was not worried who was purchasing it as long as it got good price for the land.

“The government’s purpose is to get good chunk of money by auctioning the lands.”

Long on bravado, short on action: Whenever an incident puts either the government or Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in a fix, it has become common for the latter to say: “I will reveal the identity of persons behind the incident in the next two-three days.”

People eagerly wait for the Chief Minister to reveal the identity of persons, but only to be disappointed over the CM’s failure to come out with the promised revelations.