Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: With allegations of illegalities in the allotment of plots to his wife refusing to die down, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday offered a solution: Authorities should pay Rs 62 crore as compensation for "encroaching" upon his family's land.
"Our land measuring 3.16 acres was encroached, made into sites and sold. So, let them compensate us with Rs 62 crore, which is the market price of the land," Siddaramaiah said, with the Opposition BJP mounting pressure over the 'scam' at the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
"Our land was taken away. Should I let go of 3.16 acres just because I'm the chief minister," Siddaramaiah asked.
According to Siddaramaiah, MUDA has admitted that it was wrong in encroaching his wife's land. "Actually, we should have got another 3.16 acres in a land-to-land deal," he said.
In lieu of the 3.16 acres of land that MUDA used to form a layout, Siddaramaiah's wife was compensated in a 50:50 ratio, which meant that she got half the land back in the form of developed plots.
Siddaramaiah virtually admitted that his wife was given developed plots in an upmarket locality whereas her land was relatively subaltern.
"What could I have done if they (MUDA) gave me a site in some other place because there was no space on the land that was ours? I didn’t ask for any specific locality. It was MUDA that made the mistake," Siddaramaiah said. "We didn’t ask for sites to be given in Vijayanagar 3rd or 4th Stage. We simply agreed for a 50:50 ratio."
The CM reiterated that the plots were allotted to his wife in 2021 when the BJP was in power. "Now, the same BJP is crying foul saying it was illegal," he said.
Siddaramaiah said his government scrapped the 50:50 rule in October last year. "Notwithstanding that, let the authorities give me Rs 62 crore," he said.
Siddaramaiah even said that he got a raw deal from MUDA. "I got 14 sites in lieu of 3.16 acres,” he said. “While one acre has 44,000 sqft, what I got was 38,264 sqft. So, I've got less."