Licence of land sold by Skylight to DLF "deemed to have lapsed":Khattar

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Thursday said the licence of a piece of land in Gurgaon's Sector 83 which was sold by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's firm Skylight Hospitality to realty major DLF was "deemed to have lapsed".

The licence of the piece of land has not been renewed, he said.

"Renewal nahi kiya toh deemed lapse hai (Licence if not renewed is deemed to have lapsed)", Khattar told a press conference.

He was asked for comments on media reports that claimed the state government had in the past two years accepted nearly Rs 92 lakh from DLF to renew the commercial licence of the land in Gurgaon that was earlier owned by Skylight Hospitality.

Khattar, however, did not further elaborate on his reply.

The 3.5 acres were alleged to have been bought for Rs 7.5 crore by Vadra's company and later sold to DLF for Rs 58 crore after getting a licence to develop a colony.

Recently, a case was registered by the Gurgaon Police against Vadra and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and some others over alleged irregularities in the land deal.

Khattar said the matter will be thoroughly investigated.

The BJP has alleged there were irregularities in land deals during the term of the previous Congress government in the state.

Asked about the "non-payment of pending dues" by an entertainment project called Kingdom of Dreams (KoD) in Gurgaon, the chief minister said a "notice was issued to the Kingdom of Dreams for payment of earlier dues. We have given time to them as they wanted to settle the dues. However, if they fail to make the outstanding payment, action would be taken accordingly." Khattar said to curb the development of unauthorised colonies and make affordable plots available to people, the Haryana government would grant licences for construction of houses on 5 to 15 acres of land under the Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana.

He said the state government had removed the maximum limit of 75 acres in small towns and 300 acres in Gurgaon for developing affordable group housing colonies.

Apart from this, the maximum limit in each residential sector was increased from 10 acres to 15 acres and preference in allotment of flats would be given to beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, he said.

Khattar said 1,534 licences were granted in the tenure of the previous government, of which a maximum were granted after 2002. However, the present state government has, during last four years, given 175 licences including 107 licences for colonies falling under Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana and 68 other licences, he said.

The chief minister said licences are granted on 5 to 15 acres of land under Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana and the maximum size of plot would be 150 square metres. Keeping in view of its success, the government has implemented the scheme in cities with high density, Khattar said.

He said the state government had taken effective steps for keeping a check on corruption in Change of Land Use (CLU) cases "which was prevailing in the previous government." "There was rampant corruption in issuance of CLU during the previous government..," he alleged.

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