Bengaluru: In a major embarrassment to the ruling Congress government in Karnataka, the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (RDPR) has outright rejected a controversial proposal to allocate gram panchayat land on lease for a Congress party office in Mudhol taluk in Bagalkote district. The department clarified that there is no provision in the law to lease land for political party offices exposing the Congress’ blatant misuse of administrative machinery to secure public land for partisan interests.
The Rural Development Department’s firm stance came in response to a proposal made by the Bagalkot Zilla Panchayat to lease 1,077.17 sq m of land under the jurisdiction of Ingalagi Gram Panchayat for a Congress Bhavan for a 30-year period. Additional Chief Secretary Uma Mahadevan rejected the proposal, citing the absence of any legal clause that permits allocation of gram panchayat property for such political purposes. She is also reported to have discussed the matter with Minister Priyank Kharge.
The Congress Bhavan Trust, led by Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, has been aggressively pushing to build over 100 party offices across the state. In doing so, it has set its eyes on government land meant for public use ranging from civic amenities, sanitation worker housing, to SC/ST hostels. This move has ignited criticism and concern over the party’s disregard for public interest in its quest for political expansion.
Shockingly, the Cabinet had already approved allotments of land meant for crematoriums, community halls for the underprivileged, and post-matric hostels to the Congress Bhavan Trust in several districts—revealing the extent to which the ruling party is willing to prioritize its infrastructure over pressing civic needs.
The rejected proposal was part of a larger blueprint involving the systematic appropriation of public lands, including CA (civic amenity) sites under Urban Development Authorities, Revenue Department lands, and properties of municipal corporations such as the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation.
The Hubballi-Dharwad District Congress Bhavan is a case in point. Despite legal constraints requiring municipal properties to be auctioned publicly, the Congress attempted to bypass due process. Although the Corporation Council did not approve the plan, District In-Charge Minister Santosh Lad pushed forward, proposing to buy the land at a discounted or government-notified rate. The Finance Department, under pressure, eventually moved the file to Cabinet, which approved the deal in its February 20 meeting this year.
Similarly, the Urban Development Department had changed site locations in Chikkaballapur taluk at the behest of Minister MC Sudhakar to accommodate the construction of a Congress Bhavan there—once again, ignoring due process and public accountability.
This ongoing saga reveals a dangerous trend: the Congress government seems eager to stretch or break rules to secure permanent infrastructure for its party, even if it means repurposing land meant for the poor, marginalized, and essential public services.
In contrast, when the BJP was in power, it too faced allegations of favouritism while allotting gomal and B-Kharab lands to ideological affiliates like Rashtroththan Parishad and Jana Seva Trust. But at least they serve the society.
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