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UNQUESTIONED
LARGESSE
Digvijay's
friends continue to benefit from his generosity as they are allotted prime
land for peanuts. India Today's Neeraj Mishra
reports.
Allotting
Nazul land at concessional rate is a prerogative of a Government. But
that it should also allow for a sense of proportion is imperative. Chief
Minister Digvijay Singh has gifted away no less than 5,000 acres to his
cabinet colleague Narendra Nahata to establish a pharmacy college in his
home town Mandsaur. His advisor S.C. Behar, who heads the Makhanlal Chaturvedi
Journalism University, has been able to obtain 5,000 acres for the university
campus in Bhopal while another colleague, Hazarilal Rahuvanshi, has received
land in his home constituency Hoshangabad. All this either free of cost
or at a fraction of the market rate as land cumulatively worth more than
Rs 1,000 crore has been doled out for less than couple of crores. The
Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (formerly MACT) in Bhopal
for instance has a campus spread over 600 acres which despite generous
grants from the Centre, it has remained only partly occupied in over 30
years of its existence.The largesse does not stop here. The Baghelkhand
Vikas Samiti apparently backed by another cabinet colleague has received
9120 sq feet land in the midst of Bhopal to build a Baghelkhand Bhavan.
It is pertinent to point out that senior Congress leader Arjun Singh himself
was present at a function for the laying of foundation stone of the Bhavan.The
list of obliged cabinet colleagues is longer. Subhash Sojatia considered
close to Digvijay and head of the Shri Nakoda Shitgriha Sahkari Samiti
has received 2,17,754 sq feet (four acres) of land in his home town Mandsaur
for constructing a cold storag unit. Another former minister considered
close to Congress treasurer Motilal Vora, Lalta Prasad's family, has received
200 acres of land in Satna for the construction of a charity hostel for
girls. No working women or government hostel in the entire state is spread
on more than five acres of land while Lalta Prasad Charitable Trust, Satna
will make use of 200 acres. "Where is the sense of proportion in
land allotment?" asks a BJP leader. "The price at which they
have been given is peanuts and the whole thing reeks of favouritism and
nepotism.'' Many others too cannot understand the logic. Nahata for instance
has received his 5,000 acres for Rs 9 lakh against a market value of at
least Rs 50 crore. The land given to Makhanlal Chaturvedi University is
for an annual rent of Rs 25 only because it is a university established
by an Act of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. But Baghelkhand Bhavan would
be built by entirely private individuals who would be paying a princely
sum of Rs 1 as yearly lease rent for the next 99 years.
The legal position is that the Government can give away land to anyone
it wishes. As Finance Minister Ajay Mushran asked in the Assembly, "Where
is the illegality?'' To this the BJP replied that though the government
had blanket rights over Nazul land, it cannot trespass principles of natural
justice and neither can it escape liability in court for having given
away commercial land to affluent individuals at throwaway prices. Even
though Leader of the Opposition Babulal Gaur kept quiet on the matter,
his colleagues maintained the attack on treasury benches. The ruling party
MLAs pointed out that several BJP related organizations like the Saraswati
Shishu Mandir had received similar land largesse during the Sunderlal
Patwa regime in early 1990s.
There is a clear pattern to the land allotments. It falls into three categories:
ministers and close camp followers, religious organisations and community
bodies and newspapers. Of the 56 names that have been published in the
Budget papers, a good 18 allotments have been done in Bhopal itself while
the next biggest bracket is of the chief minister's own constituency Rajgarh
and Guna. A couple of block Congress committees and ashrams like the Sant
Shiromani Ravidas and Yogiraj Sitaram Das are also beneficiaries of the
largesse. The Yadav Samaj, Rajput Samaj, Dashora Samaj, Baudh Vihar, Haj
house and Phoolmali Samaj have also received land at concessional rates
or free of cost. One of the major benefits of taking huge campuses for
colleges or cold storage units is that later the land can be mortgaged
to banks at a market price for loans. Thus while a person pays only about
Rs 10 lakh for five acres, he can mortgage it at Rs 10 lakh an acre. Institutes
routinely use their excess land for housing for its professors and workers
who retire. "Sooner or later either the courts or the central government
will have to intervene and put a stop to distribution of largesse to select
few who are close to power centre,'' says a senior BJP leader whose own
name is under a cloud for receiving free government land. What he does
not say is that till that happens, this distribution will continue and
there is no reason why the politically powerful should not benefit.
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