K’taka Govt Resuffle 21 IAS Officers Along With DC Who Flagged MUDA Allotments

The Karnataka government on Friday transferred the District Commissioner of Mysuru, Dr KV Rajendra amid the controversy surrounding irregularities in plot allotments by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

Though the government transferred 21 senior IAS officers on Friday, moving Dr KV Rajendra is bound to raise eyebrows as he had written letters to the MUDA and the state government to cancel the allotments of sites.

Senior IAS officer Lakshmikanth Reddy G was posted as the new DC in place of Dr KV Rajendra. Sources said that Dr KV Rajendra had written 15 letters to MUDA, objecting to the allotment of land under the 50:50 scheme.

He had also written a letter to the Urban Development Department clearly indicating that the land allotments under the 50:50 scheme were causing loss of thousands of crores to the government.

Sources alleged that the MUDA Commissioner, did not bother to answer and ignoring the letters continued with land allotments, News Agency IANS said. Senior BJP leader, R Ashoka on Friday alleged that the “Rs 4,000 crore MUDA case was taking new twists every day.”

R Ashoka alleged that Urban Development Minister, Bhyrathi Suresh, brought the allotment file of 14 sites to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife, to Bengaluru. “I demand that the government put these files in public domain,” he urged.

Meanwhile, sources said that the state government turned a blind eye to the expert committee report stating that MUDA was indulging in irregularities and it also ignored the report by the DC seeking action against MUDA Commissioner.

The complaints regarding MUDA allotments were raised in 2022 and the BJP government had formed a technical committee in this regard on July 2, 2022. The committee had submitted the report on November 3, 2023 in three volumes but no action was initiated against the accused, sources stated.

Sources also alleged that 6,800 sites have been illegally allotted to influential people and these plots were purchased at low rates from farmers and registered in the names of relatives and confidantes of powerful people.

These sites were allegedly de-notified later and dropped from acquisition and after the implementation of the 50:50 scheme, they were allotted. The government has incurred a loss of more than Rs 5,000 crore, the sources alleged.

The Karnataka BJP is demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Siddarmaiah, who has denied all allegations and asked the department concerned to take back the sites allotted to his wife and return Rs 62 crore to his family.