Acquisition plan drop deprived HSIIDC of ₹1,000cr profit: CBI

Corporation would have sold plots for ₹1,884 crore against the land cost of ₹840 crore, says chargesheet

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) would have earned a profit of ₹1,044 crore from the sale of plots had the previous Congress regime not dropped about 600 acres of Manesar land from acquisition, the CBI has said in its chargesheet.

About 600 acres acquired by the industries department for the HSIIDC since 2004 for creating residential and recreational utilities in the Industrial Model Township (IMT), Manesar, was dropped from the acquisition process in 2007 on the orders of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The CBI, in its chargesheet filed in a court on February 2, accused Hooda and his officers of dropping acquisition proceedings to help real estate builders.

The probe agency alleged that the builders forced farmers to sell land at throwaway prices under threat of acquisition. Several builders who allegedly benefited from the dropping of acquisition proceedings have also been named as accused in the chargesheet.

LOSS TO HSIIDC

Last September, the HSIIDC told the CBI that the tentative saleable area of 688 acres has been assumed as 15.31 lakh square metre (378 acres) and the sale price of residential plots worked out to be ₹6,600 per square metre.

“The entire cost, including government charges, development charges, land compensation and interest, worked out to be ₹840 crore,’’ the chargesheet said, quoting HSIIDC’s cost sheet.

The cost sheet gave an indication of how much money the HSIIDC would have spent on acquiring land and developing it.

The chargesheet said that as per the parameters provided by the HSIIDC - area reserved for residential use, for commercial complex and town park, for hospitals, schools and shopping centre, the total saleable area worked out to be 16.82 lakh square metre (415 acres) and the total sale value comes out to be ₹1,884 crore.

The HSIIDC had reserved 214 acres for residential plots, 143 acres for commercial and institutional plots and 12 acres for hospitals, schools and shopping complex in its layout plan.

“Thus, if this land had been acquired by the HSIIDC and the residential and recreational projects were finalised, the corporation would have earned a profit of ₹1,044 crore,’’ the chargesheet said.

SEVERAL BUILDERS WHO BENEFITED FROM THE DROPPING OF ACQUISITION PROCEEDINGS HAVE ALSO BEEN NAMED IN THE CHARGESHEET