Robert Vadra may be the most talked about property developer in Haryana but the emergence of links between the man who sold Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law his first plot of land and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has shone a spotlight on the crucial role played by the Congress-run government in turning realty in the State into a business worth thousands of crores of rupees.
Records of all licences granted by the Haryana government from 1981 till September 27, 2012, tell a compelling story — a story of political alchemy in which farmland turns into gold for all those fortunate enough to acquire acreage and the permission required to undertake commercial development on it.
In the 23 years preceding Mr. Hooda’s rise to power, successive Chief Ministers granted licences for a total of just 8,550.32 acres. But during the seven-and-a-half years he has been Chief Minister, licences for the development of a staggering 20,549.63 acres of land have been granted — an increase of nearly 150 per cent.
Mr. Hooda has already come under media scrutiny following his decision to transfer IAS whistleblower Ashok Khemka from the State’s land registration office shortly after he began a probe into alleged irregularities in property dealings involving real estate major DLF and Mr. Vadra.
Last week, Business Standard reported that the 3.53-acre plot of land in Manesar whose purchase in January 2008 marked the entry of Mr. Vadra into the real estate business belonged to a company whose owner, Satyanand Yajee, is a long-standing associate of Mr. Hooda. If the regulatory filings made by Mr. Vadra’s company, Skylight Hospitality, are correct, Mr. Yajee was a benevolent seller. He did not cash the cheque he received from Mr. Vadra until after the latter obtained a licence changing the plot’s land use to commercial and sold it to DLF for a hefty profit — something no property dealer would normally do.
Congress spokespersons were at pains to deny favouritism by the State government in the speedy grant of the Manesar licence to Mr. Vadra and they are correct. Skylight is not the only beneficiary of official help: It turns out that Mr. Hooda, who took office in March 2005, has allocated licences to over 350 real estate firms of all sizes, most of which were unknown or had no experience whatsoever in property development.
Of the total 20,549.63 acres that were licensed, 7,733.68 acres were in Gurgaon, 2,266.91 acres in Faridabad and 10,569.37 acres in the rest of Haryana. Commercial land use accounted for 984.83 acres, group housing 5,867.99 acres, and plots 13,303.51 acres. Surprisingly, Information Technology projects accounted for a mere 409.21 acres.
A questionnaire emailed to the Chief Minister’s office seeking information on Mr. Hooda’s land allotment policy went unanswered till the time of going to press.
Rise of BPTP
Countrywide Promoters (BPTP) with roughly 1,635 acres was the single largest beneficiary, followed by Ansals (1,540 acres), Intime Promoters (1055.84 acres), Omaxe (903 acres), Unitech (830 acres), Parsvnath (716.56 acres), Ireo (651 acres), Vatika (631 acres), DLF (568 acres), Emaar-MGF (514 acres), Vipul (214 acres), Sonika Properties (Rohtak) (381 acres), Ambience (318 acres), Ramprastha (298 acres), Bestech (208 acres), Uddar Gagan Properties (Rohtak) (229 acres) and Baderwals (105 acres). Sonika and Uddar Gagan are subsidiaries of the Suncity Group owned by Zee.
Builders like BPTP, Omaxe, and Parsvnath have made huge gains in Haryana since 2005. Ireo, which belongs to a close relative of an influential BJP politician, and Bestech, which is owned by one Dharmendra Bhandari, have also become big brands in Haryana overnight. Countrywide Promoters (BPTP), incorporated as Rainbow Promoters Pvt Ltd in 1996 by Kabul Chawla, was an unknown builder till 2005. From a Najafgarh Road residential address, Mr Chawla now lives on Delhi’s ultra plush Amrita Shergill Marg in a property said to be valued in the region of Rs. 300 crore.
Baderwals, along with DLF, is also now in the public eye for having given unsecured loans to Mr. Vadra, according to publicly available balance sheets of his companies.
Other companies like Microtek (which makes inverters) and DD Motors (which owns several Maruti showrooms in Delhi) appear to have obtained licences without any expertise in construction. According to an amendment to an April 24, 2007 memo issued the very next day by the Haryana Town and Country Planning Department (TCP), a reputed coloniser eligible for the grant of licence is “one who has already obtained licence under the Haryana Development & Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 for setting up of a colony and in case of collaboration agreement with a private developer not being licensee of the Department and who is applying for obtaining the licence for the first time.” This amendment helped to widen the eligibility criteria, ensuring that lack of construction expertise would not be a deterrent in obtaining licences.
Violations overlooked
The data further reveals that the Hooda government had no problem renewing many of these licences despite builders failing to complete their work on time as stipulated. This allowed non-performing builders to profiteer by squatting on a precious resource at the cost of the end-user. Other anomalies in licence allocation abound, as is illustrated by the award of 14.793 acres of disputed land in sector 106 of Gurgaon to BPTP, allotted as per licence LC-1017A – No 18 on February 2, 2008. Its owner, Surinder Pal Beniwal had filed a complaint with the Haryana TCP against BPTP’s Countrywide Promoters on March 20, 2007, over non-payment of the agreed sale amount. In response, the TCP department wrote to Countrywide Promoters on April 23, 2007 that “the licence will be considered on the land free from all encumbrances.” Despite this or the legal dispute that followed, BPTP’s licence was first awarded and then even renewed, overlooking the fact that it has still not obtained possession of the land or begun any construction activity.
Licensees like Juventus, Selene and Mariana Infrastructure all have a common Connaught Place address and are linked to the publicly listed Indiabulls Group, which has a stated net worth of Rs. 19,320 crore and is said to be backed by powerful Congress politicians. The CEO of Indiabulls Real Estate Narendra Gehlaut is the son of Krishna Gehlaut, who was earlier a Haryana minister in the Congress government. Narendra Gehlaut is married to Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha, whose sister Shweta is married to Deepinder Hooda, the son of the Haryana Chief Minister. Similarly, Ramprastha Builders has 22 affiliate companies of which 4-5 (Ramprastha Greens, Ramprastha Estates, Ramprastha Buildwell, etc) have procured licences.
No room for middle class
On December 19, 2006 — less than two years into Mr. Hooda’s first stint as Chief Minister — the Haryana government which had earlier discontinued the grant of licences for cooperative housing societies in high and medium potential zones discontinued cooperative housing schemes even in low potential zones.
Another memo dated September 15, 2008, stated, “The licence application of only those Registered Cooperative House Building Societies will be considered for grant of licence who have a collaboration with the builders/developers having the financial capacity to undertake the development and technical expertise in development of residential colonies.” Together, these memos ensured that all cooperative housing had to be done in collaboration with a builder, wiping out the cost advantage associated with this category.
Between 2006-9, the Haryana government also announced policies for affordable housing to be priced at Rs. 4 lakh, Rs. 12.5 lakh, Rs. 14 lakh and Rs. 16 lakh for different categories. However, according to the Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC), official responses to RTI queries show that though 10 leading builders were licensed 200 acres of land in Gurgaon alone to build 40,000 dwelling units, till date not a single apartment has been handed over to the end-user. The GCC alleges that this non-construction and change of land-use to general category group housing in these areas have resulted in a benefit of roughly Rs. 4,000 crore to these builders. They have demanded that the Haryana government cancel these licences, launch a probe against corrupt government officials and build these low-cost dwelling units itself through a government agency under the Gurgaon-Manesar Master Plan 2021.
The GCC has further alleged a loss of roughly Rs. 8,000 crore to the State exchequer and corresponding gain to private builders by changing age-old norms to allow the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to acquire land directly from farmers for construction of sector roads. Earlier, builders would acquire the land directly and hand it over to HUDA free of charge along with External Development Charges (EDC) collected from buyers. Though Sectors 1-58 were developed like this, land for roads for Sectors 58-115 was acquired directly by HUDA, resulting in lower gains for farmers from whom the land was procured, while absolving builders of their responsibility of providing land for roads free of charge to the State government.
Those operating in the real estate market in Haryana further point to the neglect of the IT sector which got the lowest share of land in Mr. Hooda’s tenure, despite it being an employment generator, owing to lower margins and, therefore, lower incentives for the builder lobby to invest.
The State has also released 3 Master Plans for Gurgaon in 7 years — 2021, 2025 and 2031 — which the Opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has alleged was to change land use to favour key individuals and builders. Additionally, while earlier, licences for change of land use were restricted to Gurgaon, Faridabad and Sonepat, under Mr. Hooda, the State has allocated licences in almost every district. This rapid construction has come at the cost of basic amenities like power, water, roads, regulated traffic and adequate policing for Haryana’s burgeoning population. INLD leader Om Prakash Chautala has demanded a freeze on award of any new building licences under the proposed Master Plan for 2031 until the existing population is provided this basic infrastructure.
Illegal extraction of groundwater
Builders, who receive environmental clearance for construction of colonies on condition that there will be no impact on water resources, have been drawing groundwater for construction purposes in blatant violation of their licence conditions under the very nose of the Gurgaon administration. Following a High Court Order, a show-cause notice for illegal extraction of groundwater for construction purposes was finally served to a majority of builders on August 14, 2012 by the Haryana TCP.
Inexplicably, despite ever widening infrastructure gaps amidst rapid construction activity, the Haryana government has not used the over Rs. 10,000 crore it collected as EDC from builders (who passed the charge on to the end consumer) in the past half decade for creation of basic amenities.
Keywords: Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, land scams, HUDA, real estate, DLF, Haryana politics, BPTP, urban planning, farmland
Excellent piece. Very well researched. Bravo!!
Journalists, like you, have the ability to change perceptions on
newspapers (I was thinking Hindu is another mouthpiece for the
corrupt)....have to rethink !!
Thanks Shalini Singh for such a valuable report.
Surprised to see 'sons of sibal' commenting here :) saying that statistics do not speak truth, if not stats then what/who does speak truth kurshid/Montek/Sibal?
The requirement for prior expertise seems to be similar to the caste system or rajaji's kulakalvi thittam. sanjay gandhi could never have thought of starting maruti. The Hindu can also attempt to compare the number of bikes, cars, hospitals, colleges and mobile phones in the 23 years preceding Mr. Hooda’s rise to power and during the seven-and-a-half years he has been Chief Minister.
In our system of belief in inequality, this is what we can get. No one
feels they are equal to others and content. Everyone feels they are
superior(by knowledge/education/profession/caste/...) to others and
hence it is right to get better share. Every person, institution,media
has their own motive/agenda and based on that they act and spread the
information,not interested in the common cause. To support them,
various convincing theories/logic's are prevalent here for ages.
People take care of their house, but do not care outside until it
affects them. When self centered attitude replaced with common cause
and equality this situation can reverse. With good justice and
enforcement from police, there will be much faster changes. When the
people think 'Nation' first, and food,water,home,schools etc are more
important than religion,caste etc, prosperous India will shine.
@ mani sandilya - Mani - am a great fan of your Quips. I didn't see your posts lately. good to see you again with a good quip :)
@ Singh - about similar story in MP.. it will come up soon. Xmas and New year gift for MP. Ofcourse for BJP, investigative journalism of a short order is enough because they seem not to have perfected the art as much as congress.
Congratulation for factual write up.
Major issues end user facing in the Haryana are as follows:
No clarity on super area. Builder increase super area as per their
whims and fancies.
Despite flooding of complaints to TCP, no action taken against these
builders (various letters are shot to Jr Hooda and he never bothered
to revert).
Over charging EDC by builder but no action by Hooda and his govt.
Infinite Delays: Most projects in Faridabad were launched in 2006 and
07 but yet to be delivered. Builder never pay delay penalty.
In Faridabad, despite collecting more than 5000 Crores, basic
infrastructure is not in place and won't be there before election
(2014).
Exorbitant charges in the name of meter charges, power backup,
maintenance etc.
Builder charge exorbitantly for car parking however, as per Group
Housing norms, it is mandatory to provide parking pace.
Politicians and builders work in tandem and are making money. We need
real estate regulation bill be passed ASAP.
Kudos THE HINDU , for such reports . I see a marked change in the tone & content of THE HINDUs reporting lately- with more direct allegations even if against the rich & powerful '. We need more from THE HINDU and other Indian media must follow suit , fullfiling the medias role to control the 'rich & powerful ' in India and teach them a lesson when they err on the wrong side of the law .
Amazing Article ! Hats off to Shalini & team. Finally I see a newspaper that has the courage to expose the real estate mafia i.e. politican, bureaucrat & builder/broker. No wonder no govt. wants even a semblance of regulation over the real estate industry. How would they otherwise find easy way to churn crores !!! Keep up the great work Shalini. I would wait to see a leading newspaper running a front page news on real estate mafia's and the real estate bubble in this counrty.
Really nice article.hats off to shalini for her good investigated journalism
Credos to The Hindu. Media is doing a wonderful job FOC these days vis-a-vis Bureaus of Investigation. But.. but... once upon a time, to trace Rs. 65 crores, how much did you spend; Rs. 350 crores. How many continents did you visit ? All 5, your honour. Did you see light at the end ? No, your honour. Shall we close the case/file ? Yes, your honour. Yes, your honour.
It looks the media would out-wit one and another is exposing. No doubt, more fireworks ahead !!
Excellent piece. But why has Shalini not investigated the wealth of Mr Hooda. He is reported to have amassed vast properties in different places in India. Goa is one place that has leaked in newspapers sometime earlier.
The idea of a nation seems lost somewhere in the marketplace.
Hats off to Shalini Singh to expose the nexus of politician and builders to make crores and make the backbone of the country i.e middle class hard working people fight for basix amenities. Time has come to show the power of middle class to these daciots
No matter how much anger your pour against corruption on streets, theater, editorials, blogs etc ultimately the rural & urban poor voter (75~80% of all) is going to vote based on his caste, bottle of country liqour & bundle of currency he/she has recieved 1 day before elections. That's what has happened in past 65 years & will continue for many more years.....
This is the perfect example of corruption. In Haryana, Hooda has been governing the state for the last 7 year and there was not a single issue of corruption. GDP was growing and Haryana was a ideal state.Now when our nation is flooded with scams this one is diwali gift for haryana's people. The midas touch of Hooda is temporary and young generation is facing the crunch now. They are paying their hard earned money to builders for a small flat/house and inflation is another gift of this so called real estate boom (or the midas touch of Hooda).
simple thing is that Maharashtra, Harayana, TN and Karnataka have been at the forefront of manufacturing development in India.
Taking them down through exposing corruption of the political bosses is going to stall the pace of development in the region.
it may be good in the long term - but as they say "in the long term , we are all dead."
media and social workers are playing role of opposition.Great job done by The Hindu.Thanks.
History Repeats itself.
I would like, if it starts from 'The Hindu' with such
an eminent level of Journalism. A start which happened nearly a century back to uproot British Raj from India.
As karl Marx said in his Letter To Vera Zasulich (1881)
"To save the Russian commune, a Russian revolution is needed".
Today to save Indian Politics, which is currently at its lowest grade, We need a Poltical Revolution. A Revoltuion which can only start from Journalism.
brilliant investigative work by ur reporters. the state authorised loot shows the oligarchy in which we are in. housing no whr in the world is as dearer as it is in ind.ia despite it not having as high urbanisation or poppulation density. in fact the more pricy flats you buy from these corrupt corporates the more socially mobile you are considered. trust me even if it was non cong. govt thr they wud ve done the same. ssumhow our public discourse shud be tht these properties are like diamonds of liberia wch had blood stan under it. how much money has the poor farmer got out of it. time for urban upsurge!
While the common people mob him for petty works (personal and social), and celebrate
a transfer or a panchayat grant thinking that the state is considerate.The real and huge
benefits of power are accrued to the machinery (contractors, developers, industrialists
etc) which in turn funds the politics when the time comes. The irony is that the petty
things done by the leaders are the basis of their power. The scale of benefits provided
by the state to a close circle of people are beyond comprehension for most of the
supporters and faithfuls to a particular leader or government. Brilliant job Shalini Singh.
OMG! Salutes to the author for bringing out the facts. While millions are rotting in slums, millions of rupees is being fed into nethas' coffers. Are these nethas not rotting as well? People in slums are rotting of poverty and the nethas - rotting of sucking the blood out of downtrodden of the downtrodden. Long live Bharathiya nethas; hope of a better living in this God forsaken country is long dead...
As Robert Vadra commented, we are indeed helpless & desperate Aam Admi or Mango People in a banana republic!
People are fed up and disgusted with the Congress led UPA government. But as the Bellary Reddys, Yeddy and now Gadkari have shown, there are equally corrupt and greedy leaders in the BJP too. Gadkari definitely seems to have got money from dubious sources as the investigations show. And his relationship wit contractors like Sancheti is well known. The shenanigans of Mulayam Singh, Laloo Yadav, Mayawati, Karunanidhi or Jayalalitha are too well known! Thousands of such examples can be given.
There is now no mainstream political party free from corruption & dubious funding. The Communists or the Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev or the IAC group of Kejriwal cannot offer credible political alternatives!
Where does this leave us-the common people of India, who want to throw out the corrupt UPA & Congress for their misrule & scams?
Hats off to Shalini and team.A grand salute to "The Hindu".This is what we call real journalism.Please keep it up.We the readers in and abroad are with you to appreciate your efforts to expose corruption at high places.
Good investigative journalism.
The extent of corruption now being revealed explains why India is taking
so long to emerge as a developed country.
Judicial system also become more corrupt, judges appointment,promotions ,after retirement postings and appointment police chiefs,local police officers are in the hands of these corrupt political leaders. Common man is affecting a lot, if you want file a paper in the court or draw a paper from the court it is not possible without paying bribe. All age old laws are applicable for common man.In the last 2o years any politician (Except Bangaru Laxaman becasue of Thelkas strong evidence) who may looted crores has punished? Lot of cases years together, most of our human resourses are wasteing in the litigations, commonman is suffering a lot, first cleanse judiciary. Next cleanse Police department, then administration, everywhere citizen charter should be implemented. political leaders now doing 1. Liquor Business 2. Real Estates 3.Establishing colleges etc doing most of lucrative businesses. These things are stopped else Gandhiji has to born again.
good work
With all these anomalies, Govt of Haryana under the leader ship of Mr Hooda is not able to provide basic facilities like road/ sewer electricity to the end users who have paid money in the shape of EDC.
In my opinion in this also some type of corruption. May be all money collected have been expend in other works and when need arises, govt will we have no money. This problem may be faced by next govt.
Kudos to Hindu for being unfraid and doing investigative journalism. It
is high time that media plays its role instead of being drunk with power
and money. Media needs to be unafraid for Indian democracy to survive.
The stated intention of land allotment was to provide housing for the mass population. In Gurgaon, to prevent speculative buying and re-selling of plots by investors, condition of allotment was that the house must be built within 2 years. Otherwise the allotment will be cancelled and land taken back by Government.
But this dead line was extended multiple times as pre-planned or due to the pressure from real estate business lobby.
Now its 9th year, most plots are vacant in Gurgaon. These plots are still held by the investor. Re-sale prices have sky rocketed (around 75 lakhs per cent) and is affordable only to the super rich.
This story will not be very different in some other state say Madhya Pradesh where in the last 10 years a similar transformation of land prices has taken place with a few people with advance knowledge of development plan making a killing. The ruling party there is BJP not Congress but if properly investigated then a similar story would be uncovered.
India is a lawless country that for the last 20 years or so has been run by big Hoods, small Hoods and medium Hoods running across party lines. Articles like this one have lots of material but hardly any utility. In the absence of law and order in the true sense you can do nothing to these Hoods.
An eye-opener article. Good job Shalini. It's high time that people should realize the nexus between politicians and corporates, and vote with sane mind.
Why single out Bhupinder Singh Hooda? All politicians have midas
touch. Whatever they touch becomes gold. Airline(SpiceJet),
media(SunTV, Jagati), Many mining firms, Many bus services, Infrastructure..
Crony capitalism will eventually kill any competitive India may have.
It must be tackled with urgency. We can reduce corruptions by having
increased transparency and accountability. Unfortunately getting a
good governance in India is years away.
Fantastic report. I guess people from the TV media especially TV anchors should
learn from Shalini as to how reporting should be done. the only thing we see now a days on TV is mudslinging and rubbish talk on most of the channels (except few people who really talk sense ).
Keep up the good work
Brilliant Research Shalini to bring out the complicity in public.
The country is full of nothing but thieves, any field, any aspect it's always some crime involved. shame.
I think this is a one sided report. Statistics dont always tell the truth .In area development it is common that growth , when it happens , happens suddenly. The report gives a feeling that the Haryana govt has helped selectivley some companies. The very fact that the growth was spread over a number of companies including some new comers indicates some fair play unless it can be brought out that illegal considerations and games were behind the scene.
Only way we can fight this corrupt practices, is by not investing in
real estate in indian cities.
thanks hindu, iam from haryana and my land has been aquired in
sonepat distt.i will definetly work to find out what,s going on .
First, its a relief that a newspaper is attempting to get to the bigger picture in relation to land. So, congratulations!
Second, its a little disspointing that the perpective is so limited:
the fact that more licenses/clearances were given, for example, could be a reflection of greater urbanisation. Its not the licenses/clearances themselves that necessarily pose a problem, but how the land was acquired, for what it was acquired, how much was paid for it, the impact of the change in land use.. etc. etc.
The problem it seems is that The Hindu, like all other newspapers/TV is caught up in trying to prove political corruption - get the big cheese - but its not that simple is it? Do an investigation of the family links between business houses/builders/media owners and the 'political families' , then it will be easier to do what you are doing. There are Hooda's in all states and also builders who have grown overnight in all states.
Mr. Bhupender Singh Hooda is not the Chief Minister of Haryana but he is a great land dealer. Earning through the land scams. Selling lands and converting it into a commercial land to his near and dear to achieve his political interests. He has earned a lot of money through land scams and it would be good enough to call him as a Property Dealer instead of CM.
hooda is representing haryana,and from a jat community,most of the jats are farmers.he is supposed to protect the farmers.mr hoodas govt aquiring land from farmers for roads through notorious land aquisition act in the name of public purpose and given to builders to make profits.what a traiter he is.
it is absolutely shocking incident. how these things didn't come out to
public domain until now. what is our media people doing. it seems media
never heed attention to common people and they only interested in
playing with politicians, moral policing without noticing these looters
of our country. these looters to punished with hefty fine and absolve
there companies in case these companies fail to pay fines.
We still live in stone age days. Might is right. It is too much to expect in this society
surrounded by self swelter where money power is law and god supreme.Thuggery once
abolished by British has reemerged as rulers.
Great job by Shalini Singh ji.But the present Government is arrogant.
We appreciate very much the details about the collusion of politicians
and corrupt govt officials. We are enlightened about the way Indians
have been managing their affairs without any sense of ethical or moral
bearing. But at least after so many years some media is able to gather
the details and publish it for scrutiny of ordinary citizens like us
give us lot of hopes that honesty and sincerity have been gaining upper
hand slowly and steadily.
I wonder if Shalini Singh is trying to wiggle out from the suggestions she made in her columns and media that Robert Vadra alone had been singled out for special treatment. This article shows that, like it or not, the Haryana Government considered this to be a profitable business and Vadra was one of hundreds who benefited. Kejriwal too should not too hasty to accuse Vadra. Unlike Gadkari, who was shoddy in his business practice, Vadra seems to have been more creative
keeping it in the family,
or at least in a small circle to,
the detriment of the masses
so much for the mango folks,
the banana eaters
and the kangaroo courts
good work shalini and team
Can I please have the address and phone no of Mr Satyanand Yajee. What a benovalent businessman.
A telegram to Sonia and MMS. Quote" Pl note Hooda's achievements stop.
Long overdue for him to get rewarded stop
Immediate reward solicited stop
May be post of Deputy PM
Excellent investigative journalism by Shalini Singh.. Thanks Hindu.
Excellent investigative report. Objective and illuminating. Kudos to ' The Hindu' to have
the guts to fight corruption !
An excellent example of thorough journalism by Shalini Singh. It is
heartening to see The Hindu encouraging investigative journalism. Such
gate keeping and active follow-ups on current issues makes The Hindu a
sure read every morning!
In short, the people of Haryana and India have been 'Hoodawinked'.
The most discerning aspect of this is that the opposition is part of this! What is the public now to do?
I hope even more honest bureaucrats stand-up to this politician-businessman nexus which is destroying India's fabric. Otherwise, there is bound to be a revolution one day that would be disastrous to one and all.
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