Kin have surrendered lands, says Yeddyurappa

HUBLI - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Friday announced that his kin had surrendered residential and commercial land that was allegedly allotted to them in violation of laws.

Yeddyurappa told reporters that the land had been surrendered as the opposition was making the “baseless allegation” that he had violated laws to favour his family members in land allotment.

The announcement comes ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central leadership’s meeting in Delhi later Friday to discuss the fallout of the land scandal surrounding Yeddyurappa, the party’s first chief minister in south India.

The chief minister has acknowledged that his two sons, daughter, son-in-law, sister, her son and daughter-in-law had got either residential or commercial plots or both.

He has been, however, defending the act saying his Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) predecessors had done the same.

The Congress and JD-S have been demanding Yeddyurappa’s resignation because of alleged land deals favouring his family. The JD-S claims the deals amount to Rs.5,000 crore (Rs.50 billion).

Denying any wrongdoing, Yeddyurappa asserted that the judicial probe upon decided Thursday would bring out the truth. The state cabinet approved the probe by a retired Supreme Court judge into all land deals, mainly in and around Bangalore, in the last 10 years. The name of the judge and terms of reference are yet to be announced.