The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Land encroachment documents are being tampered with, says Congress

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Land encroachment documents are being tampered with, says Congress

Special Correspondent

It is to malign political opponents: Ugrappa; A.T. Ramaswamy calls the allegations baseless

ARGUMENT: Congress MLC V.S. Ugrappa arguing with legislature committee special officer K. Narasimhaiah at the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore on Friday.

Bangalore: The exposure of big names by the Joint Legislature Committee in connection with encroachment of 45,000 acres of Government land in Bangalore Urban district has begun to create political ripples.

Congress leader V.S. Ugrappa and others of the party on Friday accused the former chairperson of the committee, A.T. Ramaswamy, and other officers concerned of “trying to tamper with documents” in an effort to “malign political opponents, especially the Congress.”

Mr. Ramaswamy denied the allegation as “baseless” and said that it was “impossible to tamper with the documents” as copies of it were in the possession of the departments.

The names of the members of the Late Gundu Rao’s family had figured prominently in the list of encroachers.

The drama began on Friday evening when Mr. Ugrappa confronted Mr. Ramaswmay and the committee’s special officer K. Narasimhaiah in the Vidhana Soudha and accused them of trying to tamper with the committee’s findings “beyond office hours”.

He said the committee had no locus standi after it was wound up following the dissolution of the Assembly. It was now the business of the secretary concerned to do the needful and the next elected government to take this forward, he said.

Mr. Ramaswamy, who met presspersons later, said that he had come only to seek an appointment with the Speaker to hand over all the documents related to their findings. “We have half a truck load of documents. What do we do with them but hand them over?” he asked. Mr. Narasimhiah said that he had been “ill-treated” by the Congress leaders. “Not a single line can be tampered with because all reports are with departments,” he added.

Speaking to The Hindu, G.V. Srirama Reddy, former MLA, who was also a member of the committee, said: “It is absurd for Mr. Ugrappa to say that we are trying to tamper with the documents.”

In fact, one of the points made by Mr. Ramaswamy to the Governor when he met him on Thursday was that the documents pertaining to encroachment of 45,000 acres of land from all departments should be “kept intact” and that nobody should be allowed to tamper with them, he added.

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