The Haryana advocate general has alleged that criteria had been tweaked for allotment of 14 industrial plots in Panchkula to the "near and dear ones" of the then Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and recommended their cancellation.
AG Baldev Raj Mahajan, in his opinion given to the government before the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, has alleged that "favour" had been granted in the allotments and that the then Haryana Urban Development Authority chairman had approved the allotments after the expiry of date for inviting applications. The chief minister is the chairman of HUDA.
Hooda has rejected the charges, insisting that while in power, "we did not do anything that was not as per the rules."
According to the AG, the HUDA had invited applications for allotment of 14 industrial plots in the industrial estate Panchkula, in December 2011, for which the last date of submission was January 6, 2012.
Later, on the basis of detailed facts and material on record it transpired that "the entire process relating to allotment was mired in gross illegalities and grave allegations of favouritism, nepotism were apparent therein," Mahajan has claimed.
"It thus emerged that the entire allotment process was specifically tailor-made to somehow shortlist the final 14 allottees, most of whom were quite close or closely related to the then chairman HUDA cum chief minister of the state.
"So much so, out of 582 applicants in all, who had applied, purposely these 14 allotees alone where shortlisted by giving extremely high score in interview even though the record showed that most of these candidates did not even fulfill the basic eligibility conditions," the AG alleged.
"There was thus enough material on record warranting a strong and stringent action in the matter, including cancellation of these allotments and registration of FIR against those who tweaked the rules of allotment, changed the criteria even 15 days that after the expiry of last date of submission of applications to bring many of such '14 suitors', within 'eligibility', and thus by conducting a sham and totally bogus allotment process made allotments to these 14 persons, whereas as per recrods, not even one of them was eligible even," it said.
Hooda, while rejecting the allegations, has said, "The Bharatiya Janata Party government has failed to fulfil any of its promises made during the October 2014 assembly polls. So, they are diverting people's attention by such cases, which is purely witch hunt."
He has added, "let the government get an inquiry done by vigilance, CBI or any other agency."
Khattar took a dig at Hooda, saying those who "boasted" in the Assembly about their readiness to face any kind of investigation, were terming the probe as "personal vendetta".
He told reporters in Karnal, "Action would be initiated against those who would go against the rules. The CBI is an independent investigation agency and it works on its own....Law would take its own course and those found guilty would be punished."
