The brotherhood of land-grabbers

Allegations of corruption, nepotism and irregularities in the allocation of government land to politicians of different parties are flying thick and fast in Karnataka, but it is anybody’s guess if any of these allegations will be investigated and taken to their logical conclusion.

While Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has come under fire over the alleged irregularities in the allotment of land to his wife by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), similar charges have been hurled against each other by members of both the ruling and Opposition parties.

Politicians are known to help themselves rather liberally by usurping plots meant for residential, industrial and civic amenity purposes.

For instance, while lakhs of ordinary citizens are waiting in the queue for a housing plot in Bengaluru, the government has for years been allotting sites on a preferential basis at highly subsidised rates to legislators through the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA).

It is also a common practice for politicians to obtain industrial lands from the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) using their influence.

Many politicians are also known to get lands allotted in the names of trusts floated by their family members and associates.

While some of these lands are used for purposes for which they were allotted, like setting up charitable institutions, there are also several cases of misuse.

For instance, an Opposition leader was recently accused of running a biryani eatery from a plot allotted for educational purposes.

These politicians are rarely exposed because they are bound together by the brotherhood of corruption.

The government, irrespective of the party in power, routinely allots lands not only to treasury bench members but also to those in the Opposition.

Though leaders of different hues are often found accusing each other of land-grabbing, nothing substantial ever comes out of the charges, since they are usually made only to blackmail their opponents into silence.

This malaise is not likely to end on its own as all politicians grab land. They may hit out at each other in public, but in private, it’s “You scratch my back and I scratch yours”.

The only hope is for the Lokayukta to intervene and conduct an audit of all the land that has been allotted to politicians, their family members or trusts associated with them, and make the list public.

This public naming and shaming should then serve as a trigger for investigations and hopefully as a deterrent in the future.

The lands that have been allotted in violation of norms or those which are not used for the specified purposes for which they were allotted should be taken back by the government.

The Lokayukta should also evolve rules to ensure that public lands do not fall into the hands of politicians on a preferential or subsidised basis.