CM yet to read HC order on SEZ land allotment
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, DEC 8
Even a fortnight after the Bombay High Court at Goa pointed out irregularities in allotment of 32 lakh sq mts land to seven Special Economic Zone promoters in Goa, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat is yet to take a look at the order.
The High court had stated that land allotments were arbitrary and does not stand the test of reasonableness.
However, Kamat still claims he “still has not read the order”.
Based on the High court order (Nov 26), the opposition has already called for criminal investigation of two former Congress chief ministers Pratapsing Rane and Luizinho Faleiro for favouring the SEZ promoters, in what leader of opposition Manohar Parrikar has called “the Rs 100 crore scam”.
“I have not even read the order, how can I comment,” a smiling Kamat told this reporter, when asked how the state government would respond to the damning observation made by the High Court. “The file is so thick,” Kamat said.
Picking up another bulky file for demonstrative effect, the chief minister said, while mockingly shuffling the pages: “See the high court order is this thick. How do you expect me to go through it?”
Parrikar has claimed that both Faleiro and Rane, currently the Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly, had been ‘hand in glove’ with the SEZ promoters and had gone out of their way to allot them huge tracts of land in violation of norms.
The BJP leader has already said that he would summon the seven SEZ promoters to probe the graft angle in land allotment scam.
The SEZ promoters in question are namely Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd, Cipla group, Peninsular Pharma Research Ltd, Paradigm Logistic & Distributors, Planetview Mercantile Pvt Ltd, Inox Mercentile Pvt Ltd and M/s Maxgrow.
The state government was forced to de-notify the allotment of 32 sq mts land to the SEZ promoters in face of stiff civil society protests a couple of years back.
The SEZ promoters had then approached the Bombay High court challenging the government’s de-notification decision, before the court quashed and set aside their application on Nov 26.
