Karnataka PWD minister, H D Revanna reject land grabbing allegation

Karnataka PWD minister and chief minister H D Kumaraswamy's brother, H D Revanna, Wednesday rejected allegations that he had grabbed over 54 acres of government land and demanded that the matter is probed.

Former Congress minister A Manju has accused members of Revanna's family of grabbing the government land spread over various survey numbers in Somanahalli Kaval village in Hassan district. He alleged that fake documents were created for the purpose. Countering the allegation, Revanna asserted that the government should immediately take possession of the land if there was anything wrong in it.

"Whoever has done it, whether be it Revanna or his family members, the government should immediately take possession of the government land," Revanna told reporters. Revanna said Manju was a minister in the Siddaramaiahgovernment and now he was "making some allegations." "Whoever has grabbed government land, let the government take it in its custody. Who has asked the government not to act against it? I am not going to file any defamation (suit) against anybody. If I start doing it, I will be at loss," Revanna said.

The issue gave ammunition to the opposition BJP to target theCongress-JDS coalition government. Ridiculing the coalition partners clashing with each other, BJP's Karnataka unit chief B S Yeddyurappa said "We all know that former prime minister H D Deve Gowda'schildren are involved in scams. However, in recent times former Congress minister A Manju has alleged that in Hassan district 54 acres and 29 guntas (one acre equals 40 guntas) of government land, whose value is worth Rs 3,000 crore, has been registered in their(Deve Gowda family) names illegally," Yeddyurappa said.

However, the chief minister was conspicuous by his silence, Yeddyurappa said at the inaugural of the party's state-level special meeting at the Palace Grounds. Flaying Kumaraswamy for not reacting to the charges and Revanna for taking the accusations "casually," Yeddyurappa said the BJP had in the past brought out the "scam" in public in the form of a booklet.