Soon after the House assembled, the BJP continued its dharna for the third day charging that Siddaramaiah has no right to continue in the office as he has illegally denotified the land to get benefits.
The party was in no mood to allow either the chief minister to speak or the House to transact any business.
Amid the din, the chief minister said a retired high court judge would probe into the allegations. He said the denotifications made by the Bangalore Development Authority from 2003 till date would be probed, but added that the terms of reference for the judicial commission would be notified soon. The layout plan was initially proposed in 2003.
When the BJP did not relent even after his announcement, Siddaramaiah said: “I have already ordered a judicial probe. The BJP was in power for five years. The Congress had demanded a CBI probe into several scams by the BJP. But it did not agree even once.
I have not committed any blunder. There is no question of referring the issue to the CBI,” he reiterated.
Leader of the Opposition Jagadish Shettar thundered that though Siddaramaiah claimed he was not involved in the denotification and put the responsibility on the officials, he had signed the file pertaining to the denotification on March 31.
Thus, he is directly involved in illegal denotification, he said.
Siddaramaiah, meanwhile, reiterated his allegation that Shettar, as chief minister, had been responsible for preparing the modified Arkavathy Layout plan by denotifying 541 acres.
“Now he is making noise to cover up his blunders. The judicial probe will bring out the truth. As the situation (in the House) is not conducive, I will table my reply,” he said.
BJP MLAs CT Ravi and Dr C N Ashwath Narayan and others were seen tearing the copies of the bills tabled by the ruling party.
Later, speaking to the media, Siddaramaiah said: “Despite announcing that the government is ready for a probe by three agencies — the CID, a Joint House Committee or a judicial probe — the BJP?is trying to get political mileage by demanding a CBI?probe. The same party till recently used to term the CBI?as the Congress Bureau of Investigation.”
Asked why he did not want to hand over the investigation to the CBI, Siddaramaiah said: “When we have competent investigating agencies in the State, why give it to the CBI?”
Siddaramaiah dismissed the allegation. He, however, admitted that he had signed on the dotted line, not denotifying the said land but remodifying the entire plan. “Where does it say that I have denotified the land,” he asked. “I am ready are ready for any probe by a State-run agency,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shettar said the Siddaramaiah government was trying to hide behind “technical” terminology. “Siddaramaiah is trying to hide behind the fact that he has approved only the remodification of the Arkavathy layout, not denotification of the land. What he calls re-modification', I call denotification',” he explained.
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