BENGALURU: An 8,000sq ft site, reportedly sold by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in tony Jayanagar for a paltry Rs 2 crore while the going rate is at least 10 times more, has snowballed into a controversy in Congress-governed Karnataka, with BJP calling it a daylight robbery of public land and community resources.
The row comes amid a raging furore over alleged improper Mysore Urban Development Authority (Muda) site allotments to the CM and his family.
Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya demanded a probe into the plot sale of July last year, saying “we cannot allow our civic spaces to be gifted away at throwaway prices to benefit private interests”. He claimed the govt’s guidance value set the plot at Rs 23.2 crore, but BDA sold it for Rs 2 crore.
According to reports, the site, after it was transferred in 1973 from the City Improvement Trust Board to its later avatar BDA, was given to a private person for a 10-year period with the intent of establishing a nursing home. When the lease period expired, the individual requested BDA to issue an absolute sale deed. However, BDA spiked the request on the ground that a civic amenity (CA) site cannot be transferred to individuals. Requests were made again in 2008, 2013 and 2015. On July 12, 2024, BDA issued an absolute sale deed citing a controversial 2020 order that empowered BDA to sell CA sites.
BDA commissioner N Jayaram insisted the plot was not a CA site. Asked why it was not opened to public bidding, he told TOI it was because “the occupants are in its possession”.
“Given the fact As the occupants are in its possession, we cannot go for bidding.”
