Opinion This land is their land
Bangalore demonstrates that real estate is where the real action is,for politicians
In Bangalore,land scam-tainted B.S.Yeddyurappa continues as chief minister,not because there is not enough evidence of illegal land grabbing,de-notifying and allotting against him,his sons and choice relatives,but because his party,the BJP,has used convoluted logic involving his caste and the forthcoming panchayat elections to let him remain.
In the past few weeks,the BJP,H.D. Deve Gowdas JD (S) and the Congress hav been involved in an intricate game that can only be called you out my land scams,and Ill out yours. So,not a day goes by without a land skeleton or two coming tumbling out of a politicians closet. In the guilty list is the entire parade of Karnataka chief ministers starting with Yeddyurappa and going chronologically backwards with H.D. Kumaraswamy,Dharam Singh,S.M. Krishna,and so on every one of them de-notifying and gifting plots and acreage to their relatives and assorted cronies.
All goes to show that in Indias tech capital and its fastest-growing city,Bangalore,land is gold. Politicians and VIPs with several Vs prefixed to their names have been plundering Bangalore in the last couple of decades…it is a loot of epic proportions, says Justice Santosh Hegde,a former Supreme Court judge and Lok Ayukta of Karnataka. Hegde confesses that,despite limited prosecution powers,the bulk of his time is spent in investigating Bangalores shady land deals.
Shady deals are varied,says Hegde. Here is a recent swindle he exposed where the modus operandi involves powerful politicians acquiring large swathes of land by tricking farmer-land owners and,in turn,selling it to the industrial development board for several multiples of the prices paid to the farmers. In one such case,the lok ayukta has just filed an FIR against Karnatakas information technology minister Katta Subramanya Naidu.
In Indias showpiece city for globalisation,land is precious. Bangalore is a magnet for large technology companies and multinationals which have set up gleaming high rises and sprawling office parks,whether Narayana Murthys fanciful buildings at the Infosys campus or Vijay Mallyas UB Towers,which rivals the Empire State Building.
The citys easygoing style and pleasant weather attracts immigrants from other parts of the country and even returning Indians to strike roots in the city. Despite patchy governance and terrible infrastructure,many settlers swear that Bangalore is Indias most liveable city. Naturally,the demand for clean (litigation-free) land in and around the city is massive. Prices around the city have shot up from a lakh an acre a decade ago to six crore rupees and upwards,depending on the location. In suburbs like Whitefield and Electronics City,each square foot of land commands stratospheric prices.
Land bilking has even drawn in the police.Stung by accusations that Bangalores police stations are being run as unofficial land tribunals and officers are asking for huge sums of money to settle disputes,Bangalores police commissioner Shankar Bidari was forced to issue a memo stipulating dos and donts for the city police in disputes.
While Bangalores politicians are gobbling up large bands of land,the average citizen has to be content building castles in the air.Thousands hanker for a 30×40 ft plot. But Bangalore Development Authority,the official dispenser of residential land,has not made a disbursement for many years,if the out-of-turn allotments to politicians and their cronies are discounted.
Real estate has become the new playground for politicians since liberalisation cut their grip on money-spinning licenses,says Samuel Paul,founder and chairman of the Bangalore-based Public Affairs Centre which fights corruption. Land grabbing cuts across political parties,he says. What happened in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries is being repeated in Bangalore. There is no end to the greed for land.
saritha.rai@expressindia.com
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