Opp. alleges MIDC land scam, ₹50,000 crore loss to govt | Tech Reddy

Chaotic scenes ruled the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday after the opposition alleged corruption in the denotification of 12,500 acres of land by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) over two years. The MIDC had 14,219 hectares in its land bank.

While Leader of Opposition Radhkrishna Vikhe-Patil claimed it was a scam, former NCP leader Ajit Pawar said the denotification of about 12,500 acres resulted in a loss of ₹50,000 crore to the state government. He demanded that the Minister of State Industries Subhash Desai take full responsibility for this and resign immediately. The Assembly was adjourned three times, with an aggressive Opposition entering the well of the House and raising slogans against the government.

Responding to the allegations, Mr. Desai said that most of the land bank had been denotified during the Congress-NCP regime by minister Narayan Rane. He said that the land has been denotified as per the rules and to make way for development projects under Make in India.

“Almost 90% of the MIDC land bank has been denotified in the last two years. This is nothing but corruption. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) or another Central agency should look into this,” said the Mr. Vikhe Patil. He added that as Industries Minister, Mr. Rane had rejected a proposal by a firm called Swastik Properties to denotify a piece of land in Igatpuri. “It was 2012, but the government has now given permission and land to Swastik Properties. This land has been denotified even though he is not an applied farmer as per MIDC rules, which is required for denotification.

Mr. Pawar, too, alleged corruption in the allotment of land to Swastik Properties. “If the farmers had asked for the denotification of this piece of land, it would have been justified. Clearly, Mr. Rane did not denotify it, but this government did it in violation of basic norms.

Shiv Sena MLAs joined the fray and attacked the opposition while defending Mr. Desai, leading to another adjournment. Mr. Desai said that former ministers Mr. Rane and Rajendra Darda had denotified the piece of land. “Farmers and the local MP had opposed the acquisition of land in Igatpuri. But keep in mind, in 2010, Mr. Darda denotified 128 acres of land for Ashok Industries Pvt. Ltd. for the same reasons. Mr. Rane denotified land in four cases during his tenure.

He said that the MIDC committee had said that most of the land had already been denotified and the rest was in small pieces, which was not useful. “At this point, a survey conducted by the District Collector said that the farmers were demanding ₹ 3 crore as compensation per acre. This was not feasible yet. Based on the Collector’s report and the recommendations of the committee, we decided to denotify 106 hectares belonging to 113 farmers on January 30, 2016,” said Mr. Desai.

He also alleged that the previous Congress-NCP governments used the MIDC to protect the interests of a few, and not the tribals and farmers. “Yes, so much land was acquired by us, about 16,045 hectares, but it was all diverted for Make in India projects.”

NCP leader and former Finance Minister Jayant Patil said that Mr. Desai was giving different versions of facts. “There is a difference in the data provided by the Minister and those in the files. The Minister hid the information that it was Ajay Nahar of Nahar Developers who submitted the request for denotification, and not the farmers, as the Minister he says

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde said the “illegal denotification” had led to a loss of ₹20,000 crore to the government, and Mr. Desai should resign immediately.