Belgaum: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has rapped the BS Yeddyurappa and HD Kumaraswamy governments for "rampant" illegal denotification of land benefiting builders and companies during the 2007-11 period. "During 2007-11, the government denotified 123 acres and 15.5 guntas (one gunta is about 1,086 sq ft) after taking possession and another 89 acres and 23.5 guntas of land after notifying the fact of taking possession," the CAG report said.
The CAG indictment comes as an additional embarrassment to Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswamy who are facing several private complaints in courts for allegedly denotifying land illegally.
Yeddyurappa, who severed his 40-year old association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and formally launched his own outfit - Karnataka Janatha Party - recently, had to spend 24 days in judicial custody in 2011 in a land denotification case before being released on bail.
In its report placed on Wednesday before the Assembly, holding its Winter Session, the CAG said denotification of 212 acres and 39 guntas during 2007-11 was done in "defiance of law," adding these cases had not been referred to the Denotification Committee.
The performance audit conducted in February-July 2012 covered the 2007-12 period. Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister from February 4, 2006 to October 9, 2007 at the head of the JDS-BJP coalition. Yeddyurappa, heading the first-ever BJP government in the South, held the CM's post from May 30, 2008 to July 31 last year.
"These denotifications defied law and had been done after land had been duly taken possession of even while many cases challenging the acquisition process had been pending in the courts," the report said.
In seven such cases, the government irregularly denotified 16 acres and 15.2 guntas in four layouts between October 2007 and September 2010 after the land had been taken possession of and developed by Bangalore Development Authority.
"These denotifications had been done pursuant to the orders of the incumbent Chief Ministers (HD Kumaraswamy and BS Yeddyurappa) who disregarded denotification law," the CAG report said.
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