Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council Chalawady Narayanaswamy on Wednesday asked Governor Thawarchand Gehlot to dismiss state minister Priyank Kharge for allegedly “snatching away yet another opportunity from deserving SC (Scheduled Caste) entrepreneurs”.
Kharge, the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, is Karnataka’s minister for IT/BT and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj. The BJP has alleged a “scam” in the allotment of a five-acre parcel of land identified for civic amenities (CA) in an industrial park near Bengaluru airport to a trust run by the Kharge family.
Priyank is a trustee of the beneficiary Siddhartha Vihar Trust, and his brother Rahul Kharge is the chairman.
What is this piece of land, and how was it allotted?
In February this year, the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) issued a notification for allotment of civic amenities (CA) plots in industrial areas set up by it. The applicants had to satisfy various criteria to be eligible for the allotment of these sites.
The CA sites were meant for centers of research and development, innovation, and excellence; skill development/technical institutes; educational institutions; offices of government or public sector units; etc. As per a government order issued in November 2023, the CA plots were to be given on a 10-year lease-cum-sale basis.
A total of 24.1 percent of the total sites area developed by the KIADB is reserved for ST/ST entrepreneurs from the state. This year, applications were sought for the allotment of 193 CA sites reserved for SCs/ STs, spread across industrial areas in 12 districts.
The CA site at the center of the controversy is a 5-acre plot at the Hi Tech Defense and Aerospace Park Phase-1 (Hardware Sector) in Bengaluru Urban district. The land parcel is part of 45.94 acres set aside for civic amenities at the park, to be allocated under the SC quota.
What is the Siddhartha Vihar Trust, and why did it ask for a CA site?
Apart from Mallikarjun Kharge’s sons Rahul and Priyank, the Congress president himself is a trustee, as is his son-in-law, Radhakrishna, who is the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Gulbarga. The Siddhartha Vihar Trust built the popular Buddha Vihar complex, a Buddhist spiritual center spread over 24 acres off Sedam Road outside Kalaburagi (formerly Gulbarga) in northern Karnataka.
In its application to KIADB, the trust asked for the CA site to build a not-for-profit skill development center and training institute at an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore. The promoters were supposed to put in Rs 10 crore, and another Rs 10 crore was to be raised in loans. The skill development center, which was expected to be headed by Rahul Kharge, reportedly had plans to collaborate with the Indo-German Training Center.
The Trust had sought either a 2.17-acre AM-3 plot or a 5-acre AM-4 plot at the industrial park. Under the lease-cum-sale agreement, the price of the plot in question was Rs 2.8 crore per acre.
What has the BJP alleged?
The BJP has pointed to several alleged irregularities in KIADB’s allocation of CA sites. Applications were invited on February 8 with February 23 as the last date to apply — according to Narayanaswamy, this small 14-day window was to “make sure no one knew about it”.
The State Level Single Window Clearance Committee reviewed the applications on March 4, and the list of allottees was cleared a day later at a meeting chaired by Industries Minister MB Patil. According to Narayanaswamy’s complaint to the Governor, allocation to the Kharges when Priyank is a minister amounted to a conflict of interest, “a criminal breach of trust”, and a “breach of (the minister’s) oath”.
What is the Kharges’ defense?
At a press conference on Wednesday, Priyank challenged the BJP to identify any illegality in the allocation of the CA to the trust for a skill development center.
“We have not sought any subsidy, nor deferred payment for the sites. Is there any law preventing us from applying for the sites?” he said.
According to Priyank, applications were received for 43 of the 193 sites. “Were there other applicants for the site, and were we unduly favored? We have been running the trust for the past two decades. Where is the quid pro quo?” he said.
He alleged that the BJP was targeting the Kharge family for opposing the RSS, and the controversy had been “pre-scripted” to destabilize the government.
It has been pointed out that in the last days of Basavaraj Bommai’s BJP government last year, Nirani Sugars Ltd, which is owned by then Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani, received approval for a Rs 86.91 crore project to expand the capacity of its sugar plant in Bagalkot. district.
The in-principle approval came on March 29, 2023, the day the Model Code of Conduct came into effect.