Chandigarh:
The Haryana government has 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 today, Director General of Haryana Town and Country Planning Department (HTCPD) TC Gupta said the land had been released to East India Hotels Limited more than 16 years back and the permission was granted to it to sell land to DLF Limited "after following due process of law".
"No land belonging to the government or Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) was allotted or transferred to either DLF Limited or East India Hotels Limited," he said.
Mr Gupta said East India Hotels Limited had applied for construction of 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," Mr 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 Limited in 1990, Mr 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," Mr Gupta said.
He said that in 2005, a representation was received from East India Hotels Limited and DLF Limited that East India Hotels Limited 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 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, Mr Kejriwal had claimed to have more proof to show there was a "nexus" between Haryana government and DLF, which was given land circumventing laws.