K'taka land row: Kumaraswamy threatens dharna

Bangalore: JDS leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Thursday alleged that the Urban Development department had not responded to his query under the RTI act on payment to a housing society and threatened that he would go on a dharna on Friday.

Kumaraswamy, who has drawn the ire of the ruling BJP for releasing documents on alleged land scams involving Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and his family members, said he was trying to get replies to a query from the Department for the past one month.

"I have been asking for information regarding payment of Rs 400 crore to the DLF Housing Society. The Urban Development Principal Secretary is also not responding to my phone calls for the document since a month... I will wait till this afternoon. If I do not get it, I will stage dharna tomorrow in front of his office," he told a press meet here.

Kumaraswamy, who had led the JDS-BJP coalition government, took a dig a Yeddyurappa for his announcement to earmark Rs five crore in the budget to reward those providing information on "benami" lands owned by politicians around Bangalore city. "Yeddyurappa family will be the first victims, because it is they who own benami lands", he said.

"The BJP leaders are shameless supporting the misdeeds of Yeddyurappa government," Kumaraswamy said.

He appealed to Lokayukta Santosh Hegde to accord top priority to the petition against him and and his brother H D Balakrishne Gowda and complete the investigations so that the people of the state get to know the truth.

Kumaraswamy dismissed as "baseless" allegations made by an advocate in his complaint that about Rs 167 crore funds were deposited in the bank accounts of Kumaraswamy's relatives after he became chief minister in 2006.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda slammed BJP for the Ekta yatra in Jammu and Kashmir and said "it is only to divide the nation and not to unite".

"Are Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley the only ones who unite the nation?, he asked.

JDS sources said the party's minority wing is organising a protest in the city against Yeddyurappa on January 29, on the eve of a Congress rally demanding the Chief Minister's resignation.