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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Left closets come under govt glare

Left closets come under govt glare

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published Published on Jun 1, 2011   modified Modified on Jun 1, 2011
-The Telegraph
 
The Mamata Banerjee government today struck at the foundations of a crony real estate network that allegedly flourished during the reign of CPM leader Gautam Deb and was spreading its reach by co-opting operators from the Opposition as well.

The government disbanded the authority that had arranged the land for Vedic Village, abolished the Hidco chairman’s quota for distribution of plots and decided to review all New Town land allotments since December 1, 2010.

The areas covered by the decisions are New Town — a city being developed across 25 mouzas of Rajarhat block in North 24-Parganas — the fringes of Rajarhat and Bhangar in South 24-Parganas.

The territory, where a construction boom is yet to run its course, had been the playground of Deb, the former housing minister who quit as Hidco chairman before filing his nomination papers. The new Hidco chairman has not been named yet.

Like Hidco had been arranging land for New Town, the Bhangar Rajarhat Area Development Authority (Brada) had been collecting plots in South 24-Parganas for development.

The three decisions followed a one-hour meeting attended by commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee, housing minister Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and senior Hidco officials at the agency’s office inside Salt Lake stadium.

“Following the instructions of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, we decided to abolish the (Hidco) chairman’s quota and Brada. The processing of all allotments made after December 1, 2010, will be stalled,” Mukherjee said. “The chief minister will form a committee that will review the allotments.”

IT companies such as Cognizant Technology Solutions and Aegis, some consulates and banks were allotted land in New Town by the erstwhile Left Front government in its last few months.

However, Mukherjee clarified: “The allotments made following the norms will be allowed to proceed with their plans. In cases where the norms have been flouted, the committee will decide the course of action.”

A deal with Infosys will not come under the review as it was struck in the last week of November.

A housing department official said “irregularities and nepotism by the previous government” had prompted the three decisions.

The laid-down procedure for land allotment in New Town is to invite applications through newspaper advertisements and conduct a lottery to draw up the list of recipients.

But allegations abound that Deb — who headed Hidco since its inception in 1999 — flouted the guidelines and used discretionary powers to give land. The chairman’s quota wasn’t fixed. Every time Hidco decided to invite applications for a chunk of land, the quota was decided afresh.

“Common people never came to know about these allotments but only the minister’s favourites got them,” said a Trinamul leader.

Last year, a CAG report had indicted Deb for distributing plots under the chairman’s quota by flouting norms. Deb had then contended that a discretionary quota could not be bound by fixed norms but critics had pointed out that the land in Rajarhat had been acquired for public good and the same principle should apply for all land allocations.

“We have reports that land was allotted even after the election code of conduct came into effect. Backdated orders were issued,” Mukherjee said.

Contacted tonight, Deb said: “Let them do whatever they want. I won’t say a word.”

By the time Brada was formed in 2007, the strategy had changed. All mainline political parties, including Trinamul, were given a say in decision-making. The then CPM legislator from Rajarhat, Rabin Mondal, was its chairman but Trinamul’s Bhangar MLA Arabul Islam was a key member.

“This was done to crush any resistance to land acquisition in Bhangar. Strongmen like Ghaffar Molla worked for Arabul who terrorised landowners and forced them to sell,” said a Hidco official.

In 2009, villagers ransacked the Vedic Village resort after one of them was shot at following a scuffle at a football match. The villagers alleged that goons sheltered in the resort used coercive measures to buy off land. In this year’s election, Arabul lost to his CPM rival from Bhangar.

Housing minister Mukherjee said none of today’s decisions would slow down development work in New Town and Bhangar. “Hidco will perform Brada’s role till a new body is created,” he said.

The Telegraph, 1 June, 2011, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110601/jsp/frontpage/story_14056491.jsp


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