By IANS,
Lucknow: Accusing the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government of not allowing the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to conduct a special audit of Greater Noida authority and Yamuna Expressway industrial authority, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday claimed that the special audits could unearth land scam worth around Rs.1 lakh crore.
“We believe that if special audits of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities are conducted, a land scam of at least Rs.1 lakh crore committed by the Mayawati government will be exposed,” BJP secretary Kirit Somaiya told reporters at a press conference.
“As the state government wants to cover up the large-scale bungling that has taken place in the name of land acquisition, it is making every effort to obstruct special audits in the authorities,” he alleged.
Demanding a probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the land acquisition for various projects undertaken by the state government in the National Capital Region (NCR) region, Somaiya claimed, “We have appealed to the CAG to move the Supreme Court, taking into account the resistance of the state government over the special audits of the development authorities.”
“There are chances that the supreme audit institution of the country will approach the apex court for carrying out special audits of the development authorities,” he added.
Somaiya alleged that in the Yamuna Expressway housing project alone, the state government indulged in financial bungling of over Rs.28,000 crore.
“Records gathered by us indicate that 6,000 acres of land at Noida and in NCR was acquired for the project and handed over in dubious manner to selected builders in 2010,” said Somaiya.
“Land acquired in the name of public purpose was handed over to 10 big builders. Wave Infratech of Ponty Chadda Group was the single largest beneficiary…Around 4,500 acres land was allotted to the single company,” he added.
Likewise, Somaiya alleged large-scale financial anomalies worth Rs.1,400 crore took place in Noida Extension farm house project.
“Around 13 lakh square metres of land was forcibly acquired from the farmers. While in lieu of the acquisition, the farmers were given compensation at the rate of Rs.818 per square metre, the market rate of the land acquired was around Rs.12,000 per square metre,” said Somaiya.