5 days ago
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The vigor implicit the Bidadi Integrated Township task is turning into a flashpoint betwixt Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, some of whom are vying for enactment among the Vokkaliga community. In a crook connected Sunday, Mr. Kumaraswamy made crisp idiosyncratic attacks connected the Chief Minister, questioning the maturation of his wealthiness implicit the past 2 and a fractional decades.
Terming the Chief Minister a “real property baron”, the Union Minister, successful Mandya, questioned the maturation of Mr. Shivakumar’s assets from a specified 3 acres of ancestral onshore successful 1999 to ₹1,400 crore by 2018. “The Chief Minister owes an mentation to the radical of Karnataka connected his accelerated accumulation of specified ample amounts of wealth. He should, successful fact, behaviour grooming sessions connected however to accumulate specified wealthiness truthful rapidly. It would greatly payment the public,” helium remarked sarcastically. Mr. Kumaraswamy alleged that the Chief Minister had himself joined hands with existent property mafia operators to tally the racket.
Recalling the now-scrapped Bengaluru Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC), Mr. Kumaraswamy said the quality and scope of the task changed aft the past Chief Minister H.D. Devegowda moved to Delhi arsenic Prime Minister, and blamed Mr. Shivakumar, who was Chairman of the BMIC Authority, for the efforts subsequently made to drawback onshore nether the banner of BMIC.
Reacting to Mr. Shivakumar’s assertion that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appreciated the township project, Mr. Kumaraswamy said the concern townships developed successful Gujarat were built connected adust and uncultivable land, portion the Bidadi township is projected connected “fertile cultivation onshore wrested from farmers”. He asked Mr. Shivakumar to sojourn Gujarat and spot for himself.
Sharp counter
Meanwhile, successful a crisp counterattack, Magadi legislator H.C. Balakrishna, a confidant of Mr. Shivakumar, connected Sunday told reporters successful Bengaluru that efforts are being made to tarnish Mr. Shivakumar’s representation retired of vengeance by Vokkaliga assemblage leaders — Leader of Opposition R. Ashok and Mr. Kumaraswamy.
Stating that Mr. Shivakumar had already acknowledged his engagement successful existent estate, helium said: “Anitha Kumaraswamy (wife of Kumaraswamy) has 60 acres successful the notified land. Where did they get the wealth to bargain it? Did they merchantability potatoes and bargain this land? They should explain.” He besides accused Mr. Kumaraswamy of having wished to prosecute the task adjacent during his 2nd tenure successful 2018.
Mr. Balakrishna said: “If Mr. Kumaraswamy had the honesty, helium could person withdrawn the notification and removed the reddish portion that froze each transactions. Former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda could person convinced his lad to driblet the project. It is laughable that the precise idiosyncratic who conceived this task is present raising his dependable against it. They are determined to tarnish Mr. Shivakumar’s image.” Turning his attraction to Mr. Ashok, helium asked: “Who is not progressive successful existent estate? Everyone is involved. R. Ashok has spoken astir it too. Is helium a lad of Kubera? Will you analyse however helium accumulated wealthiness aft entering politics? Did you get spot by cultivating land? Both Mr. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Ashok are assemblage leaders, and they are incapable to judge that Mr. Shivakumar has go the Chief Minister.”
BJP seeks Rahul Gandhi’s intervention
The main Opposition BJP besides upped the ante regarding the Bidadi Integrated Township project, seeking the involution of elder Congress person and Leader of the Opposition successful the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, to halt it. In a missive to Mr. Gandhi, BJP State President B.Y. Vijayendra termed it a “State-engineered onshore grab” and urged him to “take a nationalist presumption connected this substance and nonstop your Chief Minister to halt this onshore acquisition until the farmers of Bidadi person been genuinely heard, their objections examined, and a fair, transparent process is enactment successful place.”
Mr. Vijayendra said: “You question the state raising the banner of onshore rights for farmers. You talk of protecting India’s ungraded from the grip of firm interests, and you person led yatras built astir precisely this cause. Yet present successful Karnataka, the Congress Chief Minister continues unmoved, adjacent arsenic immoderate of the State’s poorest farmers are pushed to the brink of losing everything they own. I judge this contradiction deserves your attention.”
