Water Resources Minister K S Eshwarappa, Transport Minister R Ashok, Urban Development Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, Irrigation Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Higher Education Minister Arvind Limbavalli, putting up a united front, denied allegations of a Rs 50 crore kickback made by former chief minister and JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy.

The ministers also announced a decision to order a Lok Ayukta inquiry into the project as well several projects announced by Kumaraswamy and the Congress-JDS governments over the last four years.

The BJP Government’s decision comes in the face of allegations of corruption in the award of 14 acres of prime land in Bangalore. The allegations were made by both JDS and Congress leaders.

The BJP cabinet had on September 18 announced a decision to handover 14 acres of land to Maverick Holdings and Investments, a company held by Uday Garudachar a BJP ticket aspirant in the May Assembly polls in the state.

Under the deal, the company is scheduled to build 1,512 replacement homes for the economically weaker section and a mall on nine acres of the land and will, in return, be entitled to the remainder of the land.

Following the announcement of the award of the hotly contested project to Maverick Holdings, the Congress and JDS raised allegations of favouritism by the BJP Government and demanded probes into the matter.

On Tuesday, BJP Minister R Ashok said the apartments for the economically weaker section had been originally built in 1991, and had collapsed subsequently due to the poor quality of work carried out during Congress and JDS rule.

“The Opposition is preventing development in Karnataka. We are going to do at least 150 private public partnership projects during our five-year term. We are not going to be deterred by all these allegations,” Eshwarappa stated.

The BJP Government has also decided to file a criminal defamation suit against Kumaraswamy for allegations of a Rs 50 crore bribe being given to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa for the Maverick Holdings deal.