No favours extended to Vadra: Hooda

Sushil Manav

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Tribune News Service

Sirsa, March 27

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said here today that his government did not extend any undue favours to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s company Skylark Hospitality Pvt Ltd during his term.

Reacting to the CAG report tabled in the Haryana Assembly, Hooda said the report had not pointed out any irregularities and whatever observations in the report were being talked about were due to Manohar Lal Khattar Government’s refusal to reply to notices by the Principal Accountant-General (PAG), Haryana, due to politically motivated reasons.

Pointing to Additional Chief Secretary, Town and Country Planning Department, P Raghvendra Rao’s statement published in a section of the media that a 30-page reply to observations had been awaiting government’s approval, Hooda said had the Khattar Government responded to the PAG notices with true facts, the observations, which, he said were ex parte, would not have been made.

On the observation that Vadra’s company was allowed to earn huge, almost eight times net profit on investment, while the rules said that profits above 15 per cent should have accrued to the state exchequer, Hooda said the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Rules, 1976, clearly stated that the rule applied to net profits exceeding 15 per cent after the completion of project while the project had not even started in Vadra’s case .

He said the observations about the violation of area norms were incorrect as the area under the internal circulation roads was always counted towards the total area.

The area falling under the sector roads was not considered towards licence and no area of the applicant (Vadra’s company) was falling under the sector roads which needed exclusion.

Hooda said the allegations of violation of the 50 per cent limit of the commercial belt were totally misplaced as the area falling under the sector roads of the earlier licensees was not to be counted in the 50 per cent limit.

Ex-CM plans mass contact programme 

Hooda said he would launch a mass contact programme in the state in May. Addressing workers at Gillankhera village, he said people were feeling cheated as the Khattar government had failed to fulfil any of its 159-odd promises. Hooda said while all sections of society had been hit by policies of the Khattar government, farmers were affected the most. He said the prices of crops had nosedived during the BJP rule due to its pro-corporate policies and now, the FCI had also decided not to procure wheat in Haryana.