Belagavi, Jul 22: President of the women’s wing of the State Congress, Laxmi Hebbalkar, has landed in a controversy with a former KPCC member and a JD(S) leader accusing her of getting G-category sites sanctioned for her family members.
Shankar Munavalli, a formerCongress leader, alleged that residential sites belonging to the Belagavi Urban Development Authority (BUDA) were indiscriminately distributed to the relatives of Hebbalkar when D K Shivakumar was the Urban Development Minister in 2004. He demanded that Shivakumar and Hebbalkar step down from their respective posts.
Addressing media persons here on Tuesday, Munavalli said several sites were distributed under Scheme-51 of BUDA, but the beneficiaries were all relatives of Hebbalkar.
He said Basavaraj Hattiholi, Suman Kallur and Lalita Mohan Reddy, brother and sisters of Hebbalkar, and others, including T M Navalgatti, Mohan Reddy, Shivanand Sutagatti, S F Tigadi, all relatives of Hebbalkar, were on the list of beneficiaries. A Delhi-based man named Chadda was also among the beneficiaries.
He said G-category sites were meant for landless people who had contributed to the field literature, soldiers, artists, freedom fighters and journalists, but Shivakumar had influenced the officials and favoured Hebbalkar and her relatives.
The former KPCC member said Shivakumar, the incumbent energy minister, had also helped Hebbalkar and her family members grab the solar projects. The government should act immediately and withdraw all the allocations and file criminal cases against the beneficiaries, he said.
He demanded that Shivakumar be dropped from the Cabinet and Hebbalkar removed as the Congress women’s wing chief within 15 days, failing which he said he would appeal to the governor for his permission to prosecute the minister.
JD(S) district spokesperson Channappa Waggannavar said Shivakumar had shown undue favours to Hebbalkar with five members of her family being selected among the beneficiaries for generating solar power for KREDL.
Waggannavar told reporters that the State government had been implementing the policy to purchase solar power from farmers and a notification in this regard was issued on August 26, 2014. Applications were invited from farmers on March 9 this year for generation of one to three megawatts of power. The online window for applying for the scheme was open for seven minutes and 20 seconds, during which 250 applications were received and 143 disposed of. However, among these, five members from Hebbalkar’s family had been selected as beneficiaries, he added.
He said Hebbalkar’s mother Girija Basavaraj Hattiholi, brother Channaraj Basavaraj Hattiholi and brother-in-law Babu Gurusiddappa Kallur and her relatives Siddappa Tigadi and Iravva Rudragouda Patil had been given the go-ahead to generate solar power at Madamgeri and Basargi villages in Savadatti taluk and in Kurgund village in Bailhongal taluk.
Hebbalkar’s family members and relatives had purchased the lands for solar power generation units 20 days prior to the government notification on the solar power generation scheme. Among the beneficiaries, the name of Tigadi exists, but the record of rights of property shows that the lands had been sold, he stated.Waggannavar said the purpose of the solar power generation scheme to help farmers had been defeated as the real beneficiaries had been deprived of the benefits.
The JD(S) has approached the court regarding the undue favouritism shown to Hebbalkar and her kin.
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