Now, Uttarakhand CM stuck in land scam The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership may decide next week the fate of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank who is embroiled in over a dozen scams since he came to power 18 months ago.
Former Chief Minister, Major General (Retd) BC Khanduri, called on senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu here on Tuesday to discuss about party’s situation in the state.
According to sources in Khanduri's camp Naidu has assured the former CM to handle the Uttarakhand tangle at top priority. The issue is expected to come for discussion with party president Nitin Gadkari after his son's wedding in Nagpur.
Khanduri was scheduled to meet BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani but got tied up in the all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar for breaking the logjam in Parliament. Thus he was advised to meet Venkaiah Naidu.
The leadership has been trying to put the revolt brewing in Uttarakhand since September on the backburber. However, any further delay in a decision may harm the party's prospects in the next elections. This is because political observers have reported falling credibility of the party under the present leadership of Nishank.
On the heels of Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa's land scams, the party is embarrassed over yet another land scandal by its Uttarakhand chief minister.
The industrial land in Rishikesh worth Rs 400 crores was sold for Rs 13 crores to a Delhi-based realtor, Studia Developers Private Limited.
Nishank, however, passed orders on Sunday to cancel the deal in an attempt to pre-empt a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Uttarakhand High Court just a day before the judgment was reserved after hearing.
The high court, however, passed strictures on the government for reversing its decisions whenever challenged through PILs. It cited earlier incidents when the state government had scraped controversial power projects after a PIL alleging irregularities was filed.
Nishank rushed to New Delhi to explain how he was misled to convert use of the land and sell it to a realtor. However, he failed to impress former chief ministers BC Khanduri and BS Koshiyari. The veterans complained of many corruption charges against the present chief minister. They feared it will affect party's prospects in the next assembly election.
The detractors of Nishank claimed the Adarsh Society scam of Mumbai is too small compared with Rishikesh land deal.
The scam relates to changes in the land-use pattern of a 50.47 acre industrial plot in Dehradun. It was allotted for industrial development back in 1961, with a caveat that it would be reverted to the government if not used for authorised purposes.
Citurdia Bio Chemicals Limited, to which the land was transferred subsequently, applied in 2002 for permission to sell 10 acres of the land. The BJP governments of Koshiyari and Khanduri refused to consider the application as both anticipated a problem.
The chemicals company went bankrupt and that was taken as an alibi by Studia Developers to move the Bureau of Indutrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) to revive the industrial unit and sell a portion of land to settle the company's old liabilities.
Nishank used this alibi and allowed sale of land and change in land use. He claimed he only followed the instructions of BIFR to help revive a unit and he has done no wrong. But all this was until Sunday. He had a change of heart after he realized that the high court hearing on the PIL will strike down the deal.
A week ago a notice was sent to the real estate developer explaining why the permission to sell the land is being cancelled. No attempt to revive the sick unit, the condition on which the sale of plot was permitted, was cited as the reason.
Following this, the developer as well as BIFR was told that the permission for land sale as well as the waiver granted for land conversion charges were being withdrawn.
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