Haryana govt denies Kejriwal's 'DLF nexus' allegations

The Haryana government on Tuesday rejected allegations of Arvind Kejriwal about a nexus between state officials and DLF and that land meant for setting up a hospital was released in favour of the realty major.

Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, T C Gupta, director general of Haryana town and country planning department said the land had been released to East India Hotels Ltd more than 16 years back and the permission was granted to it to sell land to DLF Ltd "after following due process of law"

"No land belonging to the government or Haryana Urban Development Authority was allotted or transferred to either DLF Ltd or East India Hotels Ltd," he said.

Gupta said East India Hotels Ltd. had applied for construction of a hospital/nursing home/Oberoi Hotel Management Institute and a health farm plus accommodation for executives in respect of land measuring 18 acres 2 Marla and this change of land use permission was granted on July 17, 1984.

"This project however, was not completed by the land owner," Gupta said. He said that later on acquisition proceedings were started by issuing notification on January 30 1989 in respect of this land and other lands of Sector-30, Gurgaon.

The acquisition proceedings were challenged by East India Hotels Ltd. in 1990, Gupta said. He said that on request of East India Hotels, decision was taken to exclude land measuring 30 acres out of 37 acres owned by the company from acquisition proceedings and this land was released on September 19, 1995.

"Therefore, no release of land was done during last 10 years," Gupta said.

Gupta said that in 2005, a representation was received from East India Hotels Ltd. and DLF Ltd. that East India Hotels Ltd. has not been able to utilise the land for which they had applied for change of land use permission and requested permission of the Government to sell the land.

The request for sale of land was examined by the law department and it was opined that the government can grant permission for sale of land subject to certain conditions, he said.

In a follow up to his earlier allegations of a quid pro quo between Robert Vadra and DLF, Kejriwal had claimed to have more proof to show there was a "nexus" between Haryana government and DLF, which was given land circumventing laws.

Refuting the charges, Gupta said the conditions included that all the requisite charges are paid before the permission is granted and the transferee furnishes an undertaking to abide by the regulations/policies and develop the site in accordance with the approved master plan.

Accordingly, this permission was granted, but it is relevant to mention that no land belonging to the government/HUDA was allotted or transferred to either East India Hotels Ltd. or to DLF Ltd., he said.

He said that however, the sale of land to DLF Ltd. Was viewed adversely by the high court in its orders February 2011 order.

These orders have been challenged in the Supreme Court, which has granted stay on their implementation, he said.

"Since, the matter is sub-judice, the government of Haryana will not like to comment any further on this issue. It is, however, again made clear that the permission was granted after following due process of law and the release of land was done more than 16 years back," the DG said.

Gupta said that it has also been alleged that density of DLF phase-V in Sectors 42, 43, 53, 54 of Gurgaon has been increased from 250 to 625.

He said that it is clarified that the density has not been changed in respect of DLF sectors at all.

"In fact, in the earlier Development Plan-2025AD, density of all the sectors of Gurgaon was depicted in terms of persons per acre (PPA), which has now been shown as person per hectare in the draft development plan-2031AD.

"As one hectare is equal to 2.5 acres, accordingly, 250 persons per acre have been converted to 625 persons per hectare. Therefore, this allegation is factually incorrect," he said.