Headlines
Vadra's Haryana land deal in sync with state laws: Congress
New Delhi, March 26
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.