Bengaluru: Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Saturday said he would not resign from the post as demanded by BJP for his alleged encroachment of government land as the case has been closed.
“I will not resign from my minister’s post as demanded by BJP leader K S Eshwarappa because this year the officials surveyed and took back the excess land, which I have been requesting the government to do so. Actually this issue is closed. I don’t know why this issue is being raked up,” he told reporters here.
BJP made the demand following the Bangalore North Additional Tashildar’s report to the Lokayukta that the minister had encroached 10 acres of government land at Navaratna village near Devanahalli.
BJP leaders, including Eshwarappa and Jagadish Shettar, had alleged that the minister’s family has encroached upon 65 acres of government land. They also demanded filing of criminal cases against Rao and his family as per the law.
Rao said he had written to the then government in 2008-2009 to take the excess land back after conducting a survey and fix boundaries of the land.
Moreover, it was during the BJP rule that the deputy commissioner of Bengaluru had given a clean chit by saying the land belonged to him and his family and there was no case of encroachment as found by A T Ramaswamy report, Rao said.
“All these things have happened during the BJP regime when Eshwarappa, Jagadish Shettar, and Karunakar Reddy were Revenue Ministers for sometime,” Rao said.
The allegations are unfounded as these lands were bought in 1983 for agricultural purposes and not used for commercial purposes, Rao said.
The minister also said it was he who had suggested to the then government to survey his lands after the Ramaswamy report had mentioned his name in the land encroachment list.
“In fact, I had written a letter to the then government to conduct a land survey to find out any excess land belonging to me and my family,” he said.
Rao said as far as his land issue is concerned, the Ramaswamy report has been proved to be false.
“I had contested the Ramasamy report on land encroachment. I have proved it is my land. So, in my instance it shows that it is a false report and it has exaggerated the encroachment. So we cannot call this report as a holy document,” he said.
Rao also said he planned to file defamation cases against some persons who are trying to ‘spoil’ his and family’s reputation.
