VARINDER BHATIA
The Indian Express
Posted online: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 0116 hrs IST
Chandigarh, May 13
The policies adopted by the UT Administration in the allotment of prime commercial sites in the city may have helped it earn a few crores in the last three years, but have resulted in a loss of hundreds of crores from the state exchequer.
Documents obtained under the Right to Information Act clearly say the administration has been doling out land at the prime sites and changing rules to suit the private players from time to time.
No specific policy has been implemented to govern the rules of allotment for upcoming commercial places in the city including multiplexes, office spaces and shopping malls .
For instance, in the DLF Infocity allotments, a leading private sector developer, who was allotted a prime commercial site in 2003 for setting up an IT hub in the city, has quietly been taken out of the fold of the rules governing the IT park Special Economic Zone. Though still in the IT park area, the site now stands alone as a commercial complex, with none of the SEZ rules being applicable to it.
The allotment was made on 12.5 acres of land on a payment of Rs 5.10 crore, to be paid over a period of 7 years with the interest rate of 9 pc per annum.
When contacted, the official spokesperson of UT Administration said, “Bids were invited. Three companies submitted their bids including DLF, Larsen and Toubro and a Singapore-based company Ascendas, out of which DLF’s bid was the highest. It’s right that DLF has been taken out of the IT Park SEZ, but it is still using 80 per cent of the area for IT companies such as Infosys, IBM etc.”
Brigadier G S Kahlon (retd), President, Chandigarh Sanjha Morcha, said, “the administration allotted DLF a prime land for peanuts. The land would be more than Rs 30 crore per acre at the time when it was allotted to DLF. One can easily imagine and calculate the difference.”
Besides allotments, the conversion policies of UT Administration are also equally ‘full of flaws”. The flawed and erratic policies of the UT Administration in using its power in an arbitrary manner, was even pointed out by the office of the Accountant General, Punjab, last year, which raised serious objections to the UT Administrator allowing conversion of industrial sites for commercial use.
In his report, the senior Deputy Accountant General pointed out, “The conversion of industrial site for commercial use by the Chandigarh Administration, without obtaining the prior approval of the Central Government and entrusting the government money to an autonomous body were irregular and violated the canons of financial propriety.”
The report even pointed out that submission by the then UT Finance Secretary, in September 2006 that powers exercisable by the Central Government under Sections 3, 7 and 22 of the Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952 were vested with the UT Administrator.
The Finance Secretary stated that the UT Administrator was fully competent to frame any scheme or rules under the Section of the Act.
The Accountant General’s office rejected the reply, saying that it was “not tenable as the powers and functions of the Central Government exercisable and dischargeable under laws other than Central Acts were only delegated to the Administrator, as per notification dated October 30, 1968 of Ministry of Home Affairs.
Different sets of rules for different people
While prime commercial sites have been given to major private players at throw-away prices, others have got it on high rental. When the rates of commercial property on lease-hold basis were reported to be Rs. 80,000 per square yard. The old resident industrialists were asked to pay Rs. 20,000 per square yard for conversion of his own land for commercial use.