The BJP government in Uttarakhand on Sunday tried to pre-empt a possible judicial censure against its decision to sell off industrial land in Rishikesh worth Rs 400 crore for Rs 13 crore to a realtor.
Afraid of the Uttarakhand High Court coming down heavily on him, chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank moved in swiftly to scrap the deal.
The decision comes a day before the high court in Nainital was expected to pronounce a judgment on a PIL opposing the BJP government's massive concessions to Sturdia Developers Pvt Ltd in Rishikesh.
The reversal of the controversial land deal on Sunday is the second such decision by the chief minister who had earlier scrapped 56 hydro-power projects after a PIL was filed opposing them.
In the previous instance also, Nishank scurried to avoid a possible political fallout of a judicial verdict by scrapping the controversial power projects in July after a PIL had been filed alleging that the projects had been awarded to a company with no experience of running hydro-power projects.
In a repeat of the Sunday's reversal, Nishank had cancelled the hydel projects just a day before the PIL was to come up before the high court.
BJP sources say allegations of corruption in the Nishank-led state government has been so strife that even within the state BJP there have been murmurs of protest with former CMs and arch-rivals B. S. Koshiyari and B. C. Khanduri, joining hands to oust him.
Though Nishank got away by scrapping the hydro power projects before any damage could be done to him, this time he may not be so lucky.
The petitioner, Apurva Joshi of the Independent Media Initiative Society, said they will not allow the PIL to be rendered "infructuous" because the government has belatedly accepted that they had made a wrong decision.
"Nishank has adopted a clever strategy of making these absolutely questionable decisions and then withdrawing them if someone goes to court," Joshi said.
"We won't allow him to get away with this. We want an investigation into how such a blatantly wrong decision causing loss worth hundreds of crores to a poor state was taken. We want people punished for this," he added.
Expectedly, the Congress, which is reeling under the BJP-led Opposition onslaught at the Centre over several scams, has reacted sharply.
Senior state Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat, the Leader of Opposition, demanded the chief minister's resignation.
"The Congress party demands the resignation of CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank for his government's involvement in the hydro power and Sturdia land scams," Rawat said.
"When we raised the issue in the Uttarakhand assembly, Nishank said the government has done no wrong and are fair in both allotment of the hydro power projects and also on the land deal.
"But now that they are on the backfoot. They have taken this decision considering the fact that they will have to face embarrassment in the Nainital High Court. It is a win of the people of Uttarakhand," the Congress leader added.
The hefty concessions given by the government to Sturdia developers included waiving the charges for changing the land use pattern, which alone amounted to approximately Rs 125 crore.
Apart from the concessions, such was the political support for the proposed sale that more than two dozen clearances from the government were granted in a single day, which have now been cancelled.
The 15.47 acre land had originally been allotted to a chemical company, Citurdia Chemicals and was given the necessary relaxations.
But this industrial plot was allowed to be sold to the realtor with the same relaxations after the chemical company went bankrupt.
The Nishank government had earlier accepted the proposal submitted by Sturdia Developers before the Bureau of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction ( BIFR) to revive the industrial unit and sell a portion of the land to settle the liabilities of the bankrupt chemical company.
The CM had defended his decision saying: "We have done no wrong and have merely followed the instruction of the BIFR." But last week, the government sent a notice to the real estate developer seeking an explanation as to why the permission granted to them for the sale of land should not be cancelled because they had not made any attempt to revive the unit, which was the condition for allowing the sale of the plot.
The state government apparently accused the company of hiding facts from the government.
After serving the notice, the Nishank government sent a communication to the company as well as the BIFR that the permission to sell as well as the waiver granted for the land conversion charges were being withdrawn.
Devendra Bhasin, media advisor to the Uttarakhand government, evaded a reply on the government's decision to scrap the Rishikesh land deal.
"Since the development took place late on Saturday I don't have the papers in my possession at the moment. So I don't think I can comment on it," Bhasin said.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in
Afraid of the Uttarakhand High Court coming down heavily on him, chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank moved in swiftly to scrap the deal.
The decision comes a day before the high court in Nainital was expected to pronounce a judgment on a PIL opposing the BJP government's massive concessions to Sturdia Developers Pvt Ltd in Rishikesh.
The reversal of the controversial land deal on Sunday is the second such decision by the chief minister who had earlier scrapped 56 hydro-power projects after a PIL was filed opposing them.
In the previous instance also, Nishank scurried to avoid a possible political fallout of a judicial verdict by scrapping the controversial power projects in July after a PIL had been filed alleging that the projects had been awarded to a company with no experience of running hydro-power projects.
In a repeat of the Sunday's reversal, Nishank had cancelled the hydel projects just a day before the PIL was to come up before the high court.
BJP sources say allegations of corruption in the Nishank-led state government has been so strife that even within the state BJP there have been murmurs of protest with former CMs and arch-rivals B. S. Koshiyari and B. C. Khanduri, joining hands to oust him.
Though Nishank got away by scrapping the hydro power projects before any damage could be done to him, this time he may not be so lucky.
The petitioner, Apurva Joshi of the Independent Media Initiative Society, said they will not allow the PIL to be rendered "infructuous" because the government has belatedly accepted that they had made a wrong decision.
"Nishank has adopted a clever strategy of making these absolutely questionable decisions and then withdrawing them if someone goes to court," Joshi said.
"We won't allow him to get away with this. We want an investigation into how such a blatantly wrong decision causing loss worth hundreds of crores to a poor state was taken. We want people punished for this," he added.
Expectedly, the Congress, which is reeling under the BJP-led Opposition onslaught at the Centre over several scams, has reacted sharply.
Senior state Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat, the Leader of Opposition, demanded the chief minister's resignation.
"The Congress party demands the resignation of CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank for his government's involvement in the hydro power and Sturdia land scams," Rawat said.
"When we raised the issue in the Uttarakhand assembly, Nishank said the government has done no wrong and are fair in both allotment of the hydro power projects and also on the land deal.
"But now that they are on the backfoot. They have taken this decision considering the fact that they will have to face embarrassment in the Nainital High Court. It is a win of the people of Uttarakhand," the Congress leader added.
The hefty concessions given by the government to Sturdia developers included waiving the charges for changing the land use pattern, which alone amounted to approximately Rs 125 crore.
Apart from the concessions, such was the political support for the proposed sale that more than two dozen clearances from the government were granted in a single day, which have now been cancelled.
The 15.47 acre land had originally been allotted to a chemical company, Citurdia Chemicals and was given the necessary relaxations.
But this industrial plot was allowed to be sold to the realtor with the same relaxations after the chemical company went bankrupt.
The Nishank government had earlier accepted the proposal submitted by Sturdia Developers before the Bureau of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction ( BIFR) to revive the industrial unit and sell a portion of the land to settle the liabilities of the bankrupt chemical company.
The CM had defended his decision saying: "We have done no wrong and have merely followed the instruction of the BIFR." But last week, the government sent a notice to the real estate developer seeking an explanation as to why the permission granted to them for the sale of land should not be cancelled because they had not made any attempt to revive the unit, which was the condition for allowing the sale of the plot.
The state government apparently accused the company of hiding facts from the government.
After serving the notice, the Nishank government sent a communication to the company as well as the BIFR that the permission to sell as well as the waiver granted for the land conversion charges were being withdrawn.
Devendra Bhasin, media advisor to the Uttarakhand government, evaded a reply on the government's decision to scrap the Rishikesh land deal.
"Since the development took place late on Saturday I don't have the papers in my possession at the moment. So I don't think I can comment on it," Bhasin said.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in
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