More skeletons tumble out of Muda cupboard

MYSORE: The Rs 300-crore Mandya Urban Development Authority (Muda) site allocation scam is becoming murkier by the day with more skeletons tumbling out of the Muda cupboard.
The scam relates to Muda allotting 1,721 sites in Vivekananda Nagar extension allegedly to rich and influential people, and those holding positions in various government bodies.The beneficiaries allegedly include housing minister M H Ambareesh, most of the JD(S) legislators elected between 2004 and 2008, councillors and officials.
Police filing an FIR against 12 former commissioners of Muda on Tuesday has given a new twist to this scandal, besides exposing the complexity of the issue and how officials and influential persons have connived to take away the sites meant for public distribution.
Sources said the FIR has been kept open by mentioning that "12 officers and others" and more names can be added in the coming days after the preliminary investigation.
Following a complaint by an RTI activist, the government initially asked the CBI to probe into distribution of 107 sites. However, after Muda commissioner K Mathai submitted his report, the urban development department decided to request the CBI to probe distribution of 1,721 sites in this layout.
According to the report submitted by Mathai, officials followed neither the rules nor the norms governing the allotment of sites. For instance, they even failed to wait till the last date of submission of application forms by the public and allotted the sites before that.