Complaint to chief secretary over ‘dubious means’ for diverting MUDA property to private people

Mysuru: Public Cause, a Mysuru-based social organisation, has complained to the chief secretary that officials of Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) use dubious means to divert its properties to private individuals.

In the complaint to Shalini Rajaneesh, the chief secretary (CS), S Thulaseedharan, secretary of Public Cause has cited the case of 14 acres and 22 guntas on survey number 93 at Nachanahalli in Mysuru developed in 1984, but entangled in a legal battle over the past four decades.

“MUDA officials set up their own private individuals as claimants for MUDA properties and facilitate them to grab its properties systematically - through a judicial process, for extraneous considerations and with ulterior motives,” the complaint reads.

In the letter dated August 5, which came to light on Thursday, Thulaseedharan has urged the CS to direct the MUDA commissioner to set up a task force to dismantle, demolish and destroy all structures of encroachment and to acquire MUDA’s lands in about six months.

“The City Improvement Trust Board (CITB), now MUDA, is over 121 years old. But, it has no system to preserve its property records. The commissioner may be directed to digitise property records of MUDA within six months and submit them to the principal secretary for urban development for safe custody,” the complaint suggests.

“MUDA developed sites on 14 acres and 22 guntas of land and allotted them to citizens at Nachanahallipalya Layout. In 1993, some MUDA officials set up certain private individuals as claimants and an original suit was filed before the court of principal judge, small causes and senior civil judge in Mysuru, impleading MUDA as fourth respondent. The case went on for over 22 years, but MUDA did not file a single line of ‘statement of objections’ to the case. This case is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’,” the complaint reads.

“The claimants went in appeal to the High Court. In this appeal as well, MUDA did not take steps to defend the case and to save its property in Nachanahalli. It engaged some counsels in 2021, but till today, ‘statement of objections’ to this appeal has not been filed,” the complaint reads.

“The chief secretary should set up a battery of lawyers to ensure that cases against MUDA, regarding the property in Nachanahalli, are effectively defended,” the complaint says.