BJP gets prime land in Gurugram

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 22

At a time when the BJP is gunning for the Congress and its leaders in Haryana for the land allotment to Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in Panchkula, Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in the state has allotted prime land in Gurugram to its own organisational unit .

The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) allotted 4,000 sq metre (one acre) plot for Rs 10.20 crore at the rate of Rs 25,500 per sq m in Sector 41, Gurugram, in October last year, three weeks before demonetisation. A letter to this effect was issued by the Estate Officer II, Gurugram, on October 14, 2016, in the name of the BJP, 30, HUDA complex, Rohtak.

As per the government website, the collector’s rate in Sector 41, falling in the Silokhra revenue estate, varies between Rs 30,000 per sqm for a residential area and over Rs 1 lakh per sqm in a commercial area. But, the rate at which the plot has been offered is much lower.

Interestingly, only the state unit of the BJP applied for a plot in response to an advertisement issued by HUDA for 18 institutional plots for offices of “recognised national political parties” and “state-recognised political parties” in eight districts of Haryana in May last year. No other application was received, according to information available.

As per HUDA’s advertisement, the BJP sent its application with 10 per cent of the tentative cost of the plot for which the booking closed on June 10, 2016. The allotment letter was issued to the BJP on October 14, 2016. It mentions that the cost of the plot has been staggered over four years and the entire sum has to be paid by October, 2020.

Also, unlike the practice of e-auction adopted by the Haryana Government for allotment of other plots, the state unit of the BJP was given this prime piece of land on the basis of its application even as government sources claimed that all norms were followed for the allotment.

“We have detailed instructions for allotment of plots for religious organisations as also political parties. HUDA invited applications through an open advertisement to which only the BJP responded with an application. Since there was only one applicant, the allotment letter was issued after following the due procedure,” a senior HUDA officer said.

Another officer explained that the fact that no other political party applied for the plot indicated that it was not given at a throwaway price. “The reserve price, revised recently by the BJP government, may be lower than the collector rate but is very high compared to the reserve prices in the previous government,” he stated, adding that e-auction was limited only to certain properties and sites meant for religious institutions and offices of political parties did not fall in this category.

“We are in the process of finalising the building plans for the BJP office. Once that is done, the foundation stone will be laid. The offer to get an institutional site was open to all political parties. We applied and got it. Every political party was equally eligible to apply. There has been complete transparency in the allotment,” state BJP chief Subhash Barala said.