The Karnataka government has taken away the discretionary power that Chief Ministers had to denotify land acquired for public purposes, and has transferred the process to the cabinet instead, The Times of India reported. 

 Several major politicians of Karnataka have been investigated and paid a heavy political price for land-scams involving discretionary denotification of land.

Now, a three-step process has been created in order to prevent "unilateral" decisions of CMs to denotify land. 

"All denotifications will henceforth have to be cleared by a high-level official committee headed by the additional chief secretary before it is placed before the state cabinet for final approval,'' B Basavaraju, principal secretary , revenue department, told TOI.

The TOI report further states, "Officers said changes in the denotification procedure have been initiated in tune with Section 93(1) of the UPA's Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which the state government will enforce next year."

Karnataka has a chequered history when it comes to denotification of lands by chief ministers. The CID indicted former chief ministers BS Yeddyurappa, HD Kumaraswamy and N Dharam Singh over land notification from 2007 to 2012.

Siddaramaiah too has been accused of denotifying 541 acres of land in Arkavathy layout in violation of the Karnataka High Court’s directions.