IAC arges Khurshid with fund misuse

The India Against Corruption (IAC) on Wednesday accused Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid of misusing the fund of an NGO meant for the disabled.

The IAC, led by Arvind Kejriwal, will organise a demonstration of the disabled at the residence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on October 12 to demand Khurshid’s resignation. The IAC also sought the arrest of Khurshid’s wife, Louise, who is the project manager of the NGO. 

The IAC action follows an exposé by a television channel. The IAC was angry with Khursid’s over-enthusiasm in defending Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and the role he played a few months ago in trying to make Anna Hazare agree to a truce with the government.

 The TV report has alleged siphoning of funds released by the Centre for the welfare of the handicapped. It has also claimed that many signatures of government officers have been forged. 

“First, an FIR should be lodged immediately in the case. Secondly, Louise Khurshid who was the project manager of the NGO should be arrested immediately because, being powerful, she may tamper with the evidence. Thirdly, Salman Khurshid should resign immediately from the cabinet,” said an IAC release.The IAC also urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to take action as the incident took place in his state.

Meanwhile, the Haryana government has rejected Arvind Kejriwal's charge about a nexus between state officials and DLF and that the land meant for setting up a hospital was released in favour of the realty major. The government also dismissed Kejriwal's allegation that 350 acres of government land was given to DLF by rejecting the bids of two construction majors even without opening their technical bids, saying this was “baseless.”

At a joint news conference in Chandigarh, Director-General of Haryana Town and Country Planning and Urban Estates Department T C Gupta and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructural Development Corporation's Managing Director Rajeev Arora have denied
any nexus between the state officials and DLF.

The two senior IAS officers said, “We reject the allegations that the state officials are
tilted in favour of DLF.”

Gupta said the land had been released to East India Hotels Ltd more than 16 years ago and the permission was granted to it to sell land to DLF Ltd "after following due process of law." No land belonging to the government or Haryana Urban Development Authority was allotted or transferred to either DLF Ltd or East India Hotels Ltd," he said. The IAC has dismissed Haryana Government clarifications on Kejriwal’s charges.

The IAC questioned the sale of land, which was to be used for a hospital, for developing SEZ. “That Robert Vadra had a 50 per cent share in DLF SEZ Holdings Pvt Ltd raises suspicion on the motive behind this sale of this piece of land,” said the IAC.

The IAC rejected the state government’s clarification on changing the population density in the master plans for DLF.

The IAC alleged that “special pocket was carved out in Gurgaon” with a density of 2.5 times more than the average” for DLF Phase V, which “has projects of Magnolia and Aralias where Robert Vadra has many properties.”