??|?? November 1, 2012 ?? 08:33am ??|
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought from the Centre documents relating to allotment of land to private consortium DIAL for development of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, gave two weeks to the Centre to furnish the documents while hearing a PIL that alleged the government had allotted 190 acres to DIAL at a ?throwaway? price.
Filed by NGO, Youth Against Corruption, the PIL demands a thorough probe into the land allotment blaming former civil aviation minister Praful Patel. ?Favours have been given to DIAL when Praful Patel was the civil aviation minister. His involvement and that of other officers for some personal benefits cannot be ruled out,? the PIL claims.
The HC decided to seek documents after Additional Solicitor General A S Chandhiok told the court the issues raised in the PIL are already pending before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament ever since, earlier this year the central government tabled the CAG report. The auditor concluded due to the land allotment a huge loss has been caused to the exchequer.
?The matter is pending before a parliamentary committee, which is looking into the issue,? Chandhiok maintained, at first urging the court to dismiss the petition. Later the ASG said ?confidential? documents can be shown to the court at the next date to put its apprehensions at rest.
However, senior advocate M N Krishnamani, appearing for the NGO pointed out the Parliamentary panel won?t be able to deal with the alleged criminality in the land allotment for which a probe by the CBI is required so that truth can be unearthed. ?The parliamentary panel cannot consider the criminal aspect of the issue which is to be dealt with by the CBI for which the court can pass an order,? the NGO argued, urging HC not to dispose of the plea outright.
According to the PIL, the government gave away 190 acres of prime land and assets to DIAL at a throwaway price of Rs 3.25 lakh per acre against the market price of Rs 100 crore per acre. It argues that even though the land was given strictly for aeronautical purposes, DIAL has gone ahead to build and run hotels on it to make profit. It seeks quashing of the government?s decision on land allotment to the private airport operator.
?The private partners in DIAL have made just Rs 1,813 crore of investment out of total investment of Rs 12,857 crore for Delhi airport project. By just investing Rs 1,813 crore, GMR now owns 4,700 acre of land in the most prime location of India. State largesse has been passed into the private hands virtually free,? the petition claims, saying that ?the CAG report, which was submitted to government on May 11, 2012, has listed out a number of glaring examples of favouritism to DIAL causing huge losses to the exchequer.?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delhi-HC-asks-Centre-for-documents-on-land-allotment-to-DIAL/articleshow/17042241.cms
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