JOIN USA day after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) enumerated windfall gains to private developers in Haryana, including Sky Light Hospitality Private Limited owned by Robert Vadra, senior bureaucrat and whistleblower in the case Ashok Khemka said the indictment has vindicated his stand.
But despite all the poll promises in the run up to the Assembly elections in the state last year, action against wrongdoings by Vadra’s company and other developers has so far remained limited to mere rhetoric in the BJP-run Haryana.
Even the charge sheet against Khemka, who dared to cancel the controversial land deal mutation involving Vadra and reality major DLF, still stands.
There has been no movement to junk the charge sheet against Khemka, or take it to its logical conclusion. The previous Congress regime led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda had filed a charge sheet against Khemka pointing out various irregularities in his decision to cancel the mutation.
Khemka’s pain was evident even as the CAG indictment may have comes as some solace. He said, “My action in the Vadra-DLF land licence deal vindicated in CAG report, but I continue to suffer the stigma of the charge sheet.”
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his senior cabinet colleague Anil Vij have promised action in the case as per the law. But the BJP government seems to be in no hurry.
In fact, when asked about the Vadra land deal controversy, Khattar has been maintaining that the government has many other important issues to look at and law would take its own course. The indictment has raised the political heat in Haryana. It now remains to be seen whether or not the state government acts against those who have been indicted in the CAG report for causing huge losses to the state exchequer.
The CAG report tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday said Skylight Hospitality Limited and four other companies bought licences to build colonies from Haryana government for Rs 52.26 crore, which was sold to other companies for Rs 267.47 crore, earning a profit of Rs 215.21 crore, which was not shared with the government as stated in agreements. The report states that land rules were relaxed, ignored to favour Sky Light Hospitality.
The CAG said the “possibility of extending undue benefit to particular applicants cannot be ruled out.” The report further states that Vadra’s firm, which was one of the nine companies that applied for licence, had not submitted documents on financial adequacy.