Chandigarh, April 6: The controversial lease of over five acres of prime land near Delhi suburb Gurgaon for a super-specialty eye hospital to be set up by the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) continues to haunt Haryana's Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), who had found major irregularities in the release of the land to the RGCT, has rejected submissions made by Haryana's Town and Country Planning (TCP) department justifying the release of land and allowing change of land use (CLU) for setting up the facility.
The land in question is located in a demarcated residential area falling under Gurgaon's sectors 58 to 63.
The RGCT trustees include powerful people like Congress president and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, the party vice president. The Congress is in power in Haryana.
"The principal secretary of the TCP department stated during the exit conference that the land was released in favour of the owner of the land (in this case the gram panchayat or village council of Ullahwas) and the CLU was granted in favour of the trust as per the policy of the department. This contention has been rejected," Onkar Nath, Haryana's Principal Accountant General (Audit), told IANS.
He said the TCP was given full opportunity to respond to the audit objections through the exit conference before the CAG report was finalised.
"The contention of the principal secretary was not in order as the gram panchayat (GP) had leased after issue of notification under section 4 which was against the provisions of the (Land acquisition) Act as the owners cannot create any encumbrance on the land after the issue of the notification," the CAG report said.
"The GP, which was the owner of the land, had not approached the government for the release of the land at any stage; the government changed the relevant rules on Nov 8, 2010, whereas the application of the Trust was made on Oct 20, 2010; the department granted CLU for establishing an eye hospital by the Trust in violation of its development plan as the area was demarcated as a residential area," the report pointed out.
