Team Herald
PANJIM: The Congress on Sunday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should initiate an inquiry into multi-crore scam by the Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) for violating RERA, TCP and IDC regulations while auctioning repossessed SEZ plots some days back.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress Campaign office, Patto, Panjim, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar said that 5,57,125 square metres of and from Alvara holders were illegally possessed by the government for setting up of electronic manufacturing cluster at Tuem-Pernem. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated it on October 13, 2016 ahead of 2017 Assembly elections but the electronic manufacturing cluster never materialised.
According to Chodankar, the land was developed into 60 big and small plots and as per RERA no permissions were sought by the Department of Information Technology for developing the plots that were intended to be allotted to electronic manufacturing companies as per the Central government scheme. The Government of India had disbursed more than Rs 160 crore, he added.
Chdoankar said GIDC after repossessing the land from SEZ promoters developed it into smaller plots and auctioned it without obtaining approval from concerned agencies and without following due procedures and again without RERA permissions.
In 2016, a law pertaining to open spaces in respect of the industrial estates maintained by the GIDC was changed and they were allowed to maintain 7.5 per cent of the area as open space instead of 15 per cent. In view of the same quite a good land was made available as open space requirement was reduced by 7.5 per cent and the GSIDC got 1.5 to 2 lakh excess land.
Chodankar claimed that this excess land of nearly two lakh was subdivided into plots and is being auctioned without due compliance of law. He alleged that RERA Act, TCP provisions and GIDC rules have been violated by the government.
The Congress charged that while allotting the plots bribe of Rs 2,000 to Rs 6,000 per square metre which is more than the actual rate per square metre of the plots is collected from the buyers. Chodankar alleged that the Industries Minister and GIDC officials are involved in the “multi-crore” scam and claimed that he was in possession of all documents to prove it.
Chodankar warned that the Congress will be compelled to approach the High Court if the Prime Minister fails to initiate inquiry in this “multi crore” scam.
