Vadra's Haryana land deal in sync with state laws: Congress

Posted on 27th Mar 2015 by mohit kumar

New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) The Congress on Thursday dismissed the CAG rap to its former government in Haryana for "undue favours" to party chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, and claimed the Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime acted "purely in accordance with the law" in Vadra's land deal.

"News stories are neither borne out from record nor founded upon correct facts. Instead of proceeding to hold the previous Congress government in Haryana guilty prematurely... based on half truths, innuendos and insinuations, we must understand the facts," party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a statement.

Vadra, through his company Skylight Hospitality Private Limited, allegedly bought land for cheap from the state government and sold it at a higher price to reality giant DLF after getting the land use norms changed.

However, the Congress claimed that the state's principal accountant general (PAG) neither indicted the Hooda government nor Vadra or his company for any violation of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, or any rules or policy.

"There is no such finding of wrongdoing as is being sought to be alleged and projected unfairly and incorrectly," said Surjewala.

The 2013-14 CAG report tabled in the state assembly on Wednesday noted: "Town and Country Planning Department... neither at the time of granting in-principle approval nor at the time of formal approval for transfer of licences ensured that net profit beyond 15 per cent of the total cost accrues to public exchequer.

"This enabled the developers to earn huge profits merely by selling the land while the government had to forego sizeable amount."

In contrast, Surjewala argued the "deposit of profit beyond 15 percent applies only to completed projects".

"It certainly does not apply to ongoing projects which are permitted to be sold/transferred in accordance with the Haryana Act of 1975."

"As Skylight Hospitality Private Limited had sold/transferred its licence for 2.7 acres of land before completing the project, this condition did not apply at all. Hence, no law, rule or policy was violated by previous Congress government," he added.

The Congress leader also said that the Haryana government received no "single rupee in revenue towards 15 percent profit clause" since the enactment of the law.

He claimed that the present Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state sat on the report for "politically motivated reasons" despite repeated "notices, letters, communications" by the PAG seeking an official response.