From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, Jul 26: The controversial decision of the State Government on denotifying land for the Arkavathy Layout, which figured prominently in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Friday, reverberated in the House on Saturday too and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah offered to quit politics if BJP Opposition Leader JagadishShettar is able to prove his corruption charges.
The Congress chief minister, however, reiterated the party’s position on not allowing any CBI investigation in the State and taunted the BJP leaders why their governments headed by Shettar himself and his predecessors B S Yeddyurappa, who himself was jailed on corruption charges, and D V Sadananda Gowda, the present Union Railway Minister, had not instituted CBI probes in the State over the mining and other corruption charges.
''I have not denotified even a single gunta of land and would retire from politics if any wrong-doing or corruption charges were proved against me,” Siddaramaiah said challenging Shettar if he was prepared to take up the challenge and retire from politics if he was unable to prove the allegations.
Siddaramaiah declared that the State Government was ready to order a CID investigation or even a Legislature panel into the entire issue.
The Opposition BJP led by Shettar continued its dharna in the well of the House on Saturday too, which resulted in State Legislative Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa adjourning the House.
With attempts to bring a compromise between the Opposition and treasury benches proving futile, the Speaker adjourned the House to meet on Monday.
Speaking to reporters after the adjournment of the Assembly, the chief minister said 984 acres of land acquired for formation of the Arkavathi Layout by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has been denotified during the BJP-JD(S) coalition government and the subsequent BJP Government.
The chief minister contended that it was the Jagadish Shettar government which had denotified 422 acres.
Siddaramaiah said the"re-modified scheme of Arkavathi Layout" was implemented after the Congress came to power and it was based on the Karnataka High Court orders.
Though it was decided to form the Arkavathi layout on 3750 acres, he explained that a preliminary notification was issued in 2003 for 3839.12 acres.
The final notification was issued in 2004 for 2760 acres and later revised notification for 1766.07 acres, he said.
Siddaramaiah said the BJP was raking up the issue in order to vitiate the political atmosphere and derive political mileage in view of the ensuing by-elections to the three assembly constituencies in the State next month.
He said a CBI probe, even if ordered by the Government, would take long time and it would delay the allotment of nearly 5,000 BDA sites for eligible beneficiaries.
However, the Government was ready to order a probe either by the Criminal Investigation Department or a committee of the Legislative Assembly.
Shettar said he too would retire from politics if the Chief Minister proved a charge of denotification of 422 acres land during his term.
''I am ready to face a probe. Let the government order a CBI probe,” he said and claimed that the Siddaramaiah regime had denotified the land supply funds to the party high command during the Lok Sabha polls.