"Baseless statements are now being made. I had allotted land according to court ruling," Basu told reporters at the Communist Party of India (Marxist) office in Kolkata.
The veteran Marxist, however, said he had not received any court notice so far. "Let the notice come. I will reply to whatever the court wants to know," Basu who had relinquished the office in 1999, said. To a question on government land quota at Salt Lake, he said that except for some commercial plots, there was no other plot at Salt Lake now.
There was no question of having government quota, Basu said, adding the state government had formed a committee for distribution of commercial plots. Basu said the name of his son Chandan had also been dragged into the land controversy although he had not received any plot at Salt Lake from the chief minister's quota.
"Chandan had got the land through a will from his maternal side," he said. The Supreme Court, on January 23, issued notices to the West Bengal government and Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on a public interest litigation alleging plots in the Salt Lake City had been allotted by flouting rules since 1977.
A Bench headed by Justice Ruma Pal also issued notice to Basu and his son Chandan on the allegation that in 1977-78, the chief minister's discretionary quota was created by unlawful and confidential executive orders without even informing the cabinet.