Land leased to eye hospital under CBI lens: Govt to HC
THE TRUSTRUN CHARITABLE HOSPITAL BECAME OPERATIONAL IN OCTOBER LAST YEAR
CHANDIGARH : The Haryana government on Wednesday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that land leased to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust for its eye hospital in Gurgaon’s Ulhawas village is also under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) scanner.
During the resumed hearing of a petition filed by the trust, additional advocate general Deepak Balyan told the high court bench of justices AK Mittal and AS Grewal that “it (lease) is under cloud. It is part of the land where the Supreme Court has ordered a CBI probe”.
The Supreme Court in November 2016 had ordered CBI probe into land acquisition of 1,400 acres notified by the then Bhupinder Singh Hooda Congress government in 2009, which was finally brought down to 87 acres. While ordering CBI probe, the SC had observed that it could not be oblivious to the fact that initially 1,400-acre land was notified for acquisition for development by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) but later only 87 acres were acquired.
The rest of the land was allotted to various entities, including builders and colonisers. The acquisition pertains to Ullahwas, Kadarpur, Ghatta Badshapur, Umarpura, Tigara, Medwas Behrampur and Nangli villages for development of Sectors 58 to 63 and residential-cum-commercial from Sectors 65 to 67. As per the government, Ullahwas land leased to the eye hospital was initially part of acquisition, but subsequently released and leased to the trust by the village panchayat.
Appearing for the trust, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala feigned ignorance and stated that as per his instructions the trust land is not affected by the Supreme Court order. “We are lessee. We are not the owner of the land,” he told the court following which the high court asked the Haryana government to produce the apex court order on CBI probe on the next date of hearing on February 19.
The trust-run hospital became operational in October.
The trust, chaired by the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, got five acres and three marlas from Ulhawas panchayat in 2010 on 33-year lease for setting up the charitable hospital. There was a stipulation that the hospital would be constructed within two yearsoftheleaseperiod.It, however, got two extensions when the Congress was in power in Haryana. The construction period was last extended till January 7, 2017, on the trust’s request.
The lease had remained mired in controversies over the grant of change of land use (CLU) permission during the Congress rule with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was then in opposition, alleging favouritism. The BJP came in power in Haryana in November 2014. In June last year, the district town planner (enforcement), Gurgaon, rejected occupation certificate to the trust and asked it to stop construction work since it had failed to make the hospital operational as per the initial arrangement.