Yeddyurappa offer: Spot lands in fake names, get reward

BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who is battling nepotism charges in land allotment, Tuesday offered cash rewards for people informing the government about ‘benami’ lands (lands held under fake names).

“Billions of rupees worth of ‘benami’ lands are owned by several people in Karnataka. I will set apart Rs.5 crore in the coming budget to reward with cash those who inform the government about the ‘benami’ land,” Yeddyurappa told a meeting of party legislators here.

“The government will confiscate those lands and the reward money quantum will be determined based on the present market price of those lands,” Yeddyurappa said.

The chief minister claimed that those in power before him - a reference to Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) governments - had acquired huge tracts of land but they were not in their names.

The Law Commission of India defines ‘benami’ land or ‘benami transaction’ as ‘purchase or holding of properties in the name of another’. This custom has been recognised by Indian courts for a long time. Literally, the word ‘benami’ means ‘without name’.

The essential legal characteristic of these transactions is that there is no intention to benefit the person in whose name the transaction is made.

Yeddyurappa said the name of the informant would be not be revealed.

The chief minister again attacked Governor H.R. Bhardwaj for sanctioning his prosecution over charges of favouring his kin with prime land in and around Bangalore and ‘denotifying’ large tracts of land that were allegedly bought at rates hugely less than the market rate by people who invested in his relatives’ business ventures.

Five complaints claiming that Yeddyurappa and his relatives had made over Rs.189 crore from various land allotments and also caused a loss of Rs.465 crore to the government have been filed by two advocates after Bhardwaj gave sanction to them Jan 21.

Charging that Bhardwaj had acted on the instigation of the Congress and JD-S, Yeddyurappa insisted that the governor was hostile to the BJP government from the day he assumed office. Bhardwaj became governor in June 2009.

Yeddyurappa said he will bring out a booklet in English and Hindi on land allotment and ‘denotification’ during the chief ministership of H.D. Deve Gowda (Janata Dal-Secular), S.M. Krishna, N. Dharam Singh (both Congress) and H.D. Kumaraswamy (JD-S) for distribution among all parliament members ahead of the budget session beginning February third week.