Refuting allegations by India Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal, the Haryana government on Tuesday clarified that no land meant for setting up a hospital was released in favour of DLF during the last 10 years.
Talking to journalists, Director-General of the Town and Country Planning Department T.C. Gupta said East India Hotels Ltd. had “applied for construction of a hospital, a nursing home, a hotel management institute and a health farm as well as accommodation for executives” at Gurgaon.
Though the change in land use (CLU) for 18 acres and 2 marlas of land was granted on July 17, 1984, the project was not completed by the land owner.
Acquisition proceedings involving various plots of land in Sector 30 of Gurgaon that started on January 30, 1989 were challenged by East India Hotels Ltd. through a writ petition in 1990. On the company’s request, the government, on September 19, 1995 excluded 30 out of 37 acres owned by the former from acquisition proceedings. Of this, 15 acres was meant for a hospital, 7.5 acres for a hotel management institute, 5 acres for executives’ apartments and 2.5 acres for a green belt.
Mr. Gupta said that in 2005, East India Hotels Ltd. and DLF requested the government for permission to sell as they had not been able to utilise the land for which they had sought CLU.
After getting the request examined by the law department, the State government agreed to grant permission for sale of land only if the company withdrew all cases filed by it. The permission, which was to be preceded by withdrawal of cases, was also subject to payment of all requisite charges and the transferee furnishing an undertaking to develop the site in accordance with the approved master plan.
Pending in apex court
Mr. Gupta said that while permission for sale was granted, no land belonging to the government or the Haryana Urban Development Authority was allotted or transferred to either East India Hotels Ltd. or DLF Ltd. Later, the sale of land by East India Hotels Ltd. to DLF Ltd. was viewed adversely by the High Court, whose orders were however stayed by the Supreme Court. The matter was still pending with the apex court, Mr. Gupta clarified.
He also refuted Mr. Kejriwal’s allegations regarding increase in density from 250 to 625 in the draft development plan for the Gurgaon Manesar Urban Complex-2031 project.
In the previous plan, the density of all the sectors of Gurgaon was depicted in terms of persons per acre (PPA), which had now been shown as person per hectare (PPH). As one hectare was equal to 2.5 acres, 250 persons per acre amounted to 625 persons per hectare.
Through a separate statement, the State government also sought to clarify that no business house had been granted favour in the allocation of the “Leisure and Recreation Project” at Wazirabad village, Gurgaon.
While the project was conceptualised more than 10 years ago, the allocation was initiated through international competitive bidding that was carried out transparently under the supervision of a high-profile panel of officers and experts.
The statement sought to clarify that neither any parameters were changed nor any relaxations granted for the Rs. 1,700-crore project.
