MUDA land denotification deals: Is there no one to question the Govt.?

[karira]

As reported in starofmysore.com on 29 August 2008:
Star Of Mysore Online
MUDA land denotification deals: Is there no one to question the Govt.?

Mysore, Aug. 29 (OSR)-The controversy regarding the reckless and irrational acquisition of agriculture lands in and around Mysore, ostensibly for the public purpose of providing house sites and houses for the needy among the local residents, middle class and the poor, by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) running to thousands of acres seems to be deepening as the Chief Ministers change at Vidhana Soudha.

Nobody would have questioned the acquisition of these lands by MUDA if layouts were formed and sites distributed as per the clear objectives for which MUDA exists. Sadly, in the past 10 years, MUDA has been emasculated and made impotent by the successive governments for the sole reason, as is obvious, now to help the vested interest groups and land-sharks.

Though the pending applications for sites is 1,47,759, MUDA has been allotting sites since the year 2000 as follows:

No. of sites distributed

1. 2003 4,304

2. 2005 1,700

3. 2007 3,641

These measly figures are not surprising because the government through its Ministry of Urban Development has been discouraging MUDA from acquiring land, sometimes, through its directions and sometimes, by the pernicious practice of denotifying the acquired land, apart from acting as an impediment through numerous notifications and directions. Naturally, as a consequence of these restrictive and even prohibitive orders of the government, MUDA was unable to distribute sites and houses to the needy. The vacuum so created was filled by the private land developers and apartment builders.

On hindsight it can be said the powerful lobby of private builders and land developers were behind the decision of the government to incapacitate the MUDA and thus making MUDA a mockery of a service provider in the matter of housing for the poor and the middle class particularly.

Once this satanic plan was put in place by a nexus between the land & builders' lobby and the politician-bureaucrat lobby, even the lands that were earlier acquired by MUDA were denotified leaving just about 500 acres of land with MUDA for discharging its onerous but noble objective. Indeed the government was playing a joke on the people of Mysore ! Surprisingly people of Mysore did not complaint and are not complaining even now.

According to the information provided by MUDA under Right To Information (RTI) Act to Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore (ACICM) on 19.12.2007 (eight months back), the total acquired land held by MUDA was as follows:

Village Area

Kergalli 216 acres

Lalithadripura327.34 acres

Ironically, when M. Lakshmana, Convenor of ACICM, asked for the same kind of information in the month of June 2008, the acreage in Lalithadri-pura has come down to 259 acres from 327.34 acres as on December 2007.

Now the question: Whatever happened to this 68.34 acres which was in possession of MUDA in 2007 in Lalithadripura?

Now, can Lakshmana again file another application under RTI and wait for the reply ? Well, this kind of exercise under RTI will go on infinitely ad nauseam making it a futile exercise. In the Assembly, at least when a question is asked and if the answer is inappropriate or wrong, a supplementary question can be asked immediately for whatever worth it is. But with the government department where the poison of corruption has numbed the sensitivity of every officer, it is very difficult.

According to Lakshmana, from the available records, it is obvious that about 800 acres of land notified by MUDA for its noble objective have been denotified as recently as in the month of Sept. 2007 to favour some land- sharks from Bangalore, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and New Delhi.

According to Lakshmana, such denotification is illegal because of a circular issued by the Government itself on 16.8.2004 vide No. UDD.205.BEMA PRA.2004. The operative portion of this circular reads as follows:

The Commissioners of all the Urban Development Authorities are hereby directed not to send any proposal for denotification of land from acquisition proceedings if possession of such lands are taken by the Authority by drawing a mahazar or by publishing 16(2) Notification. The proposal for denotification should not be sent in case of lands which are not required by the Authorities after taking possession. If proposals for denotification in respect of lands which fell within the ambit of above instructions of this circular are received, the matter would be viewed very seriously and disciplinary action would be initiated against the concerned Commissioners.

The instructions contained in this circular should be strictly adhered to.

In fact this notification was issued on the basis of a court order wherein it was observed that once the possession of land was taken by government (here it means MUDA), then the government has no power to withdraw from the acquisition proceedings or denotify.

Lakshmana says, it is a fit case for PIL but it's going to be very expensive for him to fight the State Authority. He has noted that in one typical case, where 55 acres and 17 guntas of land, which was notified by MUDA, was denotified without citing any reason, has a list of 38 land owners amongst whom nearly 25 names have the same surname � Reddy. This land, according to Lakshmana, originally was part of the Ravindranath Tagore Nagar Layout which is under formation. Naturally this R.T. Nagar Layout has now shrunk depriving the site applicants of their rights.

Similarly, in another case two persons with same surname � Thakkar � had got their 98 acres of land in Lalithadripura denotified.

In the third case, about 120 acres in Chikkalli were denotified. This belonged to one Rao, who is an exporter from Bangalore.

There is no point in blaming the top officials of MUDA for its non-performance and administration-related mess and corruption that is plaguing MUDA today.

Just one example will show how the government at Vidhana Soudha has turned down, without giving any reason, the resolution of MUDA in the matter of denotification of lands acquired by MUDA. It clearly suggests that there indeed was corruption at the highest level of our administration.

The MUDA had sought permission from the government to acquire land in Kergalli village, for forming Ravindranath Tagore layout, among other survey numbers, survey Nos. from 62 to 73 and 78/2 totalling 55.17 acres. Surprisingly, the government had written to MUDA saying the above survey Nos. had been dropped from acquisition without giving any reasons. This no doubt, not only surprised but also shocked some of the members of MUDA in its meeting held on 27.2.2007. Considering the government decision improper and against the interest of MUDA, the members passed a resolution saying that the decision of the government had led to a controversy leading to serious discussions in public and has also been negatively commented upon in newspapers. Therefore, the resolution urged the government to reconsider its decision and enable MUDA to keep the lands mentioned in the survey Nos. for the ongoing project of R.T. Nagar Layout.

While members K.T. Srikante-gowda (Mandya), MLC, B. Chidananda, MLC, M.K. Somashekar, MLA and Tanveer Sait, MLA, (all Mysore) wanted the government to rescind its decision, the lone member who supported the government's decision was MLC Marithibbegowda (Mandya).

As could be expected from a government which is committed more to the vested groups rather than people, the resolution of MUDA was ignored by the government which reaffirmed its earlier decision. What is mentioned above is only a tip of the iceberg.

No wonder our City Corporator Sandesh Swamy was compelled to make a suggestion to merge MUDA with the City Corporation and get rid of MUDA altogether as its very existence subserved a corrupt, anti-Mysorean government at Vidhana Soudha.

[sidmis]

MUDA LAND IS SHRINKING
as reported Star Of Mysore Online, November 12, 2008

Mysore, Nov. 12 (OSR)- Has the MUDA got adequate lands to form sites and distribute them to the genuine beneficiaries ?

According to ACICM Convenor M. Lakshmana, the land in possession of MUDA is gradually shrinking, thanks to the denotification business that is going on over the years. According to information available with Lakshmana under Right To Information (RTI) Act, MUDA has denotified more than 160 acres of land since about an year.

The Special Land Acquisition Officer of MUDA has given three different replies to Lakshmana on three occasions.

Lakshmana had sought information from MUDA about the lands in its possession. In the reply given to him in December last, MUDA had claimed that it had 565 acres of land in its possession.

Again in June this year, MUDA replied that the land in its possession was 510 acres, that is 55 acres less than Dec. 2007.

In the third reply on 5.11.2008, the MUDA informed Lakshmana that it has only 401 acres and 25 guntas in its possession.

Lakshmana wants to know where the remaining land has gone. He suspects that the 164 acres of land has been denotified and 'sold' to land mafia.

The land which was meant for genuine site aspirants has gone to land mafia thus depriving sites to many genuine beneficiaries.

"Now Minister Shobha Karandlaje has announced that 6,000 sites would be distributed upto June 2008. Had there not been denotification menace, many thousands would have got sites. If the menace continues, the existing land too could shrink," he added.

Star Of Mysore Online

[ravimls]

Hi Sidharth!
Thanks for the info. I was planning to get similar kind of info from MUDA from sometime. I will try to do that and post my findings.

Is there anyone specifically interested to know anything from MUDA? Post your requirements here.

[karira]

Merged threads

Krishna,

This old post #1 above will also be of interest to you.