Punjab Govt seeks PSIEC views on revoking land allotment

Tribune News Service

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, March 17

The state government has sought views of top officials of the Punjab Small Industries & Export Corporation (PSIEC) to revoke allotment of 25 acres of land to Signify Innovations (formerly known as Philips India).

The recommendation has been made to Chief Secretary VK Janjua by Special DGP-cum-Director Vigilance Varinder Kumar. The Vigilance has already registered a case against PSIEC officials in connection with the bifurcation of the 25-acre industrial plot for setting up Gulmohar Township in Mohali.

The Vigilance has also sought the cancellation of the sale deed executed in February 2021 between Signify Innovations and Gulmohar Township.

In 1984, the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC) had allotted 25 acres to Punjab Anand Lamp Industries Ltd. It was taken over by Philips India in 2002. In February 2021, a sale deed was executed between Signify Innovations and Gulmohar Township.

Though the PSIEC officials were in the process to reply to the Chief Secretary, sources said the officials concerned were expected to stick to their previous stand of having done nothing wrong in which an IAS officer had been booked for the alleged bifurcation of the industrial plot and its sale to the real estate firm.

The PSIEC in its reply to the state government and the Vigilance had stated that the plot was a freehold property and the government had no right on it other than monitoring that the property was used for industrial purpose and to see that it followed the estate management rules.

The probe into the industrial plot allotment case has already witnessed a tussle between the Vigilance and the state bureaucracy over naming of an IAS officer in the case.

The Vigilance had pointed out tha the bifurcation was done against the norms. The Vigilance claimed that six plots were carved out before the PSIDC issued an NOC for the sale of the property.

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