Congress accuses Anandiben of land scam, BJP rubbishes it

Gujarat Congress Monday accused Gujarat Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel of allowing a Mumbai-based company Indigold Refinery to sell two lakh square meters of land in Kutch, allotted to it to set up an industry, to another business firm in flagrant violation of the rules.

On the basis of facts obtained through Right to Information(RTI), leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said this multi-billion rupee scandal took place despite the legal opinion of all officers that the government should take possession of the land. ‘There is no provision in law authorising the revenue minister to allow such land to be sold directly to a businessman,’ he added.

Gohil said the Mumbai-based Indigold Refinery was given the land by the government and the company was obliged to start production from the proposed unit within a stipulated period, failing which the government had to take possession of the land. Indigold Refinery, however, did not start the project and decided to sell the land to an alumina refinery. The revenue minister threw all rules to the winds and allowed it to sell the land, Gohil said.

Gohil released to the newspersons the papers of the deal in which all government officers had objected to the deal but the minister over-ruled objections and allowed the deal as an exceptional case.

An officer had also suggested that there should be amendment in the policy and the government should collect 50 percent of the unearned income. However, this was rejected by the principal secretary, revenue, who said that as per law, the government should take possession of land and then it can sell it to the other party at market price. Even this was overruled by the minister who Nov 4, 2009, remarked that as per earlier instructions, the company should be allowed to sell the land directly.

Meanwhile reacting to Shaktisinh Gohil’s allegation, the state government’s spokesperson ministers Jaynarayan Vyas and Saurabh Patel said, “Indigold refinery’s owner had sought permission from state government to purchase Kutch’s Kukama and Moti Reladi based 39 acre 25 guntha land under Ganot Vahivat and Kheti ni Jamin Adhiniyam. The industrialists purchased this land from private owners and when they didn’t find this land suitable for their industry, they started the industry at some other place. Meanwhile other industrialist Alumina Refinery had sought permission to purchase this land. The state government had approved this permission on 18 December 2009 because purpose was same.

“Congress party has spread untruth and lie in haste of revealing some big scam which doesn’t exist actually,” the ministers added.

Reacting to govt spokepersons statement Shaktisinh Gohil on Tuesday invited them to come to Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram at 4.00 PM to debate the issue. Gohil said, “I have written a letter to state government’s spokesperson ministers to come and debate on this issue. If I would be proven wrong, I would apologize, if they are proven wrong they should pay whatever loss the government has witnessed due to this scam. I have told the ministers to inform me before 2.00 pm, so that I can adjust my time accordingly for debate at 4.00 pm.”