Several farmers representing the Federation of Karnataka State Farmers’ Associations and State Sugarcane Growers’ Federation staged a protest outside the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) premises in the city on Tuesday seeking a probe by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the recently unearthed scam in MUDA.
During a recent drive to digitise MUDA records, the officials found that several pages containing entries of sites allotted to beneficiaries in residential layouts of the city were missing.
The activists representing farmers’ organisations marched to the MUDA office and shouted slogans against the MUDA officials for the scam.
A team of policemen deployed at the entrance of MUDA prevented the protesters from entering the premises.
President of the Federation Kurubur Shanthakumar told The Hindu that the farmers refused to hand over the memorandum to senior MUDA officials. “We did not wish to do so as the scam has taken place in their establishment. We wanted to hand over the memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner”, he said.
Meanwhile, Additional Deputy Commissioner Manjunatha Swamy arrived near MUDA and received the memorandum. He also promised to communicate to the Government by Wednesday their demand for a CID probe.
Mr. Shanthakumar said they will give the Government a week’s time. “If a CID probe is not ordered, we will lock up the MUDA office”, he warned.
CBI probe sought
Meanwhile, Nataraj, who retired as Assistant Director of Town Planning in MUDA in 2019, is staging a solo protest outside the MUDA office alleging irregularities in the works taken up by the agency.
Though the MUDA has been constituted only to develop new layouts and distribute sites, the agency has not been able to create a single layout for the last many years in view of the hurdles in land acquisition and has instead started taking on projects in violation of the rules only for the sake of “commission”, Mr. Nataraj alleged.
Projects worth more than ₹ 1,700 crore worth had been taken up by MUDA for laying roads, drainages and toilets, among others. Mr Nataraj has sought a CBI inquiry into the works. He has urged the authorities to immediately stop the works.
