Millennium Post

Bill to protect Delhi slums from punitive action introduced in LS

- OUR CORRESPOND­ENT

NEW DELHI: A bill to provide a three-year extension to a law that protects slums and some unauthoris­ed constructi­ons in the national capital region from punitive action till a framework for orderly arrangemen­ts are in place, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday. Housing and Urban Developmen­t Minister Hardeep Singh Puri introduced the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

The bill, which was approved by the Cabinet last week, provides for extending the provisions of the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Act, 2011 for three years from January 1, 2018.

According to the bill’s Statement of Objects and Reasons, it aims to extend the validity of the Act to continue the protection to certain forms of unauthoris­ed developmen­ts in the National Capital Territory of Delhi from punitive action for a “limited period”, till December 31, 2020.

Further, the bill seeks to allow time to the “government, urban local bodies and other organisati­ons involved to take a balanced and well-considered view on policies, norms and strategies for orderly implementa­tion of plans regarding these unauthoris­ed developmen­ts,” it said.

Under the Act, orderly arrangemen­ts had to be made for relocation and rehabilita­tion of “slum dwellers and Jhuggi- Jhompri clusters”, regulation of unauthoris­ed colonies, village abadi area and their extensions, and regularisa­tion of urban street vendors, among other things. NEW DELHI: The CBI has filed three charge sheets against former chairman of First Leasing Company of India Limited (FLCIL) and EX-BCCI chief A C Muthiah, and former Managing Director Farouk M Irani for allegedly cheating three banks to the tune of around Rs 665 crore, officials said on Friday.

The probe agency has filed these charge sheets before a special CBI court in Chennai, they said here.

The charges levelled by the agency include criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery among others, a CBI spokespers­on said.

In the first case, it was alleged that key officials of FLCIL, in furtheranc­e of a conspiracy with the statutory and internal auditors of the com- pany, had availed various credit facilities from IDBI Bank with mala fide intentions to cheat it, the official said.

He said it was done on the basis of forged financial reports and funds were siphoned away for extraneous and personal purposes causing loss of Rs 273.99 crore to the bank.

In the second case, the accused had allegedly availed credit facilities from UCO Bank in the form of working capital limit and short term loans in the name of FLCIL, Chennai by furnishing false and fabricated financial statements, the CBI alleged.

It is alleged that the funds were siphoned away causing wrongful loss of Rs 142.94 crore to the bank, the spokespers­on said.

Similar modus operandi was also used by the accused to avail various credit facilities from the State Bank of India by furnishing inflated income and assets in the financial statements by creating unsubstant­iated entries in the books of accounts since 1998, the CBI alleged. The spokespers­on said the funds were diverted for personal purposes causing wrongful loss of Rs 248.46 crore to the bank.

“Investigat­ion conducted by CBI has disclosed that the accused along with seven shell companies in... conspiracy with statutory and internal auditors had cheated the banks by submitting forged financial statements to obtain undue credit limits and siphoned off the same... causing wrongful loss of Rs 665 crores(approx) to the banks,” the spokespers­on said.

Muthiah was the chairman of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from 1999 to 2001.

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