PANJIM: Smelling rampant corruption in the plot allotment process, the Goa Foundation has served legal notice to the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) demanding that the plot allocations in the industrial estates should be done through public auction and not based on the recommendation of Investment Promotion Board (IPB).
Threatening to challenge the legality of the procedure before the judiciary, the Goa Foundation has demanded amendment to the IDC allotment Regulations 2014 and Goa – IDC Transfer and Sub Lease Regulations 2014.
“We are convinced that lack of transparency in disposal of public assets like industrial plots has enabled vast misuse in the allocation of such public resources and this situation has become a major source of corruption and favouritism, in addition to leading to considerable loss of public revenues,” GF director Dr Claude Alvares said in a notice served to Managing Director IDC.
Alvares said that the Regulations dealing with the allotment of various public spaces in industrial estates owned by the corporation are not in line with the policies for allocation or disposal of such public assets.
The allotments do not meet the standards laid down by several Supreme Court judgements. A recent judgment of the Bombay High Court (Aurangabad bench) dated 14.06.2016 in PIL No.68/2013 quashing and setting aside sale or allocation of such plots in an industrial estate in Maharashtra without auction. The order has since been upheld by the Supreme Court of India on 05/08/2016, which has dismissed SLPs filed against it,” he noted.
Alvares noted that large number of plots in various industrial estates have been allocated through recent decisions of the IPB. “In most cases, the IPB recommendations are not even in accordance with the regulations and do not meet the norms for allocation of such public resources,” he said.
