Yeddyurappa says he has evidence of Congress, JD-S scams

BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, accused of favouring his kin with allotment of prime land, Wednesday said he has collected documents on various scandals during the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) governments.

He, however, is undecided about the appropriate time to make them public - now or after the Dec 26 and Dec 31 polls to 176 taluka (sub-district) and 30 zila panchayat (district councils).

“I have the documents and am considering whether to release them ahead of the panchayat polls or after,” Yeddyurappa, who has been allowed to remain in the post by his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership in spite of allegations against him, told reporters here.

Yeddyurappa, who was deputy chief minister in the 2006-07 JDS-BJP coalition government, asserted that the Congress and JD-S were “the champions” not only in land deals but in illegal mining as well.

The chief minister said the two parties have not proved the charges against him but still were projecting him as a corrupt.

Yeddyurappa ordered officials to search and gather documents against the Congress and the JD-S after the two parties, mainly the latter, released several documents alleging the chief minister has favoured his kin with prime land in and around Bangalore.

They also accused him of ‘denotifying’ (freeing from government control) lands which were bought at throwaway prices by people who invested in the business ventures of his sons.

Yeddyurappa has set up a panel headed by B. Padmaraja, a retired judge of the Karnataka high court, to probe ‘denotification’ of lands by Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) and site allotment by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) since 1995.

The chief minister said he was confident that the charges against him would not affect BJP’s prospects in the taluq and district polls.

In the 2005 polls to these councils, Congress had captured majority of them with the JD-S coming second.

Yeddyurappa has promised his party central leadership that this time he would ensure BJP bags the majority of these councils.

BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, who was here on Dec 7, had said the results of the taluka and Zilla panchayats would be a fitting reply to Congress and JD-S charges against his party’s first government in south India.