No ‘illegality’, but cycle of questions about Samrat land

Under the rules, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has only two options. One, it can set up an industry on the land and two, it can get the land use changed and use the land for some other purpose RS PATHAK, UPSIDC regional manager The letter from UPSIDC stated that a correction request to restore the land ownership back with UPSIDC is pending with sub divisional magistrate, Gauriganj for several months UMA SHANKAR PANDEY, Amethi lawyer

LUCKNOW: Will the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) set up an industrial unit on the UPSIDC’s 65-acre of land in Amethi where the Samrat Cycle factory once stood? Or does it have the design to get the land use changed to do some other business?

These are natural questions that arise in the wake of the foundation having purchased land from the Samrat Cycle Ltd through a composite auction (auction of land, building, machinery all) some six months ago.

But the foundation has not revealed its plans yet, keeping the UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) bosses guessing.

“Under the rules, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation has only two options. One, it can set up an industry on the land and two, it can get the land use changed and use the land for some other purpose,” UPSIDC regional manager RS Pathak told HT on the phone from Faizabad, adding, “But in either case they will have to approach us with the plans which they have not done it.”

The issue came to the fore after BJP leader and union human resource development minister Smriti Irani made the disclosure about the RGF having bought the land while addressing a public rally in Amethi, the constituency of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, on Sunday.

She accused the Congress of grabbing the land acquired from farmers for setting up the Samrat cycle factory over three decades ago, trying to turn heat on Rahul Gandhi who was in his constituency holding chaupals with farmers only a few days earlier.

Was there anything wrong in the RGF having purchased the land through the auction held in Delhi on February 24, 2015 — something that Irani suggested ? The UPSIDC authorities do not believe it to be so. “No, there is apparently nothing wrong so far the purchase of the land is concerned as it was done through a due procedure,” Pathak claimed.

He clarified the ownership of the land was with the UPSIDC only while the RGF had the sale deed in its favour.

“Now, it is for them to come to us with the detailed project report regarding their plans.” He also said the ownership would continue with the UPSIDC in any case.

It was in 1986 when the UPSIDC had leased out 65 acres of land to the Samrat Cycle Ltd. Since the company had got the loan finance from a bank to set up the factory and the bank as per rules had to mortgage the land before it could sanction the loan, the company, according to Pathak paid the land cost to the UPSIDC to be able to avail the finance.

The factory, according to sources, did run successfully for fivesix years before it fell sick. After a prolonged legal wrangling, the factory, along with the land, equipment was finally auctioned.

Though as the UPSIDC says there is apparently no illegality in the RGF having bought the land through an auction, the questions are still being raised over the deal. “How come the RGF got to buy the land at the auction? What plans does the RGF have up its sleeves? Was the unit really sick or was made to appear so”? These are some of the issues questions that need answers,” said sources.

Amethi lawyer Uma Shankar Pandey told HT that in August 1986 Samrat Bicycle Private Limited was given 65.57 acre land on a 90-year lease by UPSIDC.

Pandey quotes a letter from UPSIDC to state that the owner of the land was UPSIDC and not Samrat group which is facing the charge of having wrongly converted the ownership title into its name. “The letter from the UPSIDC stated that a correction request to restore the land ownership back with UPSIDC is pending with SDM, Gauriganj, for several months,” he said.