BANGALORE: Chairman of the Joint Legislature Committee on Encroachments of Government land in Bangalore Urban district, A.T. Ramaswamy, has urged the Government to order a comprehensive inquiry into a claim made by a housing cooperative society that it had paid a bribe of Rs. 4.50 crore to politicians and officials to obtain government land.

Releasing an annual report (2000-01 to 2004-05) of Vishwabharathi Housing Cooperative Society to the press, Mr. Ramaswamy said here on Thursday that it was surprising that the Department of Cooperation had overlooked the document that openly levelled charges against the Government and politicians.

The annual report could be interpreted as an official document as it was subjected to government auditing.

Any institution that would come under the cooperative sector had to exercise caution while publishing its annual report.

Publishing anything without accountability would amount to a criminal act and in that context the report was an incriminating document that maligned the Government and politicians. The report had claimed that the fourth stage of its housing scheme had run into rough weather as the cooperative society had "listened" to some politicians. For reaching an out of court settlement, the cooperative society had collected an additional Rs. 20 per sq ft from those members aspiring to own a residential site in the fourth stage under its housing scheme.

But it could not succeed in its effort to obtain the required land from the Government even after "spending Rs. 4.50 crore on politicians, officials, members of the Bangalore Development Authority and others, " the report said.

It had said that V. Somanna, the then Minister for Urban Development, and L.R. Shivarame Gowda, the then Chairman of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), had recommended that the cooperative society could be allotted 80 acres at Gerahalli and Hosakerehalli in bulk allotment.

The BDA had ratified the recommendations on September 22, 1999, and forwarded it to the Government. It had also said that the BDA's action had "laid the foundation for obtaining the land and the society had no qualms about the huge expenditure it had incurred."

Questioning the propriety of the claims made in the report, Mr. Ramaswamy said that the cooperative society had attempted to mislead the public by running a "questionable and ambiguous" advertisement claiming that the Supreme Court had favoured it in its ruling. The Supreme Court in its ruling said that the Government could withdraw the allotment of land "according to law."

The Department of Urban Development in its order, on April 4, 2006, had clarified that the BDA could make bulk allotment if the land was vacant. As the land in question was not vacant, the BDA had no powers to allot it. Besides the cooperative society had in its advertisement spoken about out of court settlement, Mr. Ramaswamy said.

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