Govt Unused APIIC Land

Govt May Take back Unused APIIC Land

The issue of major companies and organizations that were allotted huge chunks of government land and have still kept it unutilized came up for discussion at the two-day collectors conference that began here on Wednesday. In all, 4,885 acres of land that has been allotted to the companies and organizations have been lying unutilized. Of these, the APIIC distributed the lion's share of 3,300 acres while the state government allotted 1,555 acres. The noted companies and organizations that got land from the government and kept it unused include EPTRI (10 acres), Ambedkar Open University (27 acres), Airport Authority of India (9 acres), CMC (25 acres), and IDL (620 acres). The companies and organizations which have kept the land allotted by APIIC unused include Lanco Hills for Technology Park (50 acres) Fem India (100 acres) and AP Housing Board (120 acres). The state government has already issued show cause notices to some of the organizations and companies as to why the land should not be recovered from them for not utilizing it for the purpose it was given. "We have already issued notices to some organizations like Airports Authority of India. We will take action against them as per the Telangana Alienated Land Rules, we are given permission to proceed to" said Ranga Reddy collector V Seshadri. Land in Ranga Reddy district have become most precious in view of its proximity to Hyderabad and the fact that vacant land is the state capital is more or less saturated. At present, the land rate in Ranga Reddy district is hovering around Rs 10 crore per acre. Sources told that apart from the issue of the vacant land, the collectors' conference is also likely to look into the issue of the land allotment made to 40 companies that later reported sick.  

Anaa Hazare Name Surfaces in a Land Grabbing Case

Crusader against corruption and India Against Corruption activist, Anna Hazare, who is fighting tooth and nail for a stronger Lok Pal Bill in Delhi, is found involved a land grab and selling case. This was discovered when the Supreme Court on Tuesday scanned some documents pertaining to an old case. The documents revealed that a prime Pune plot belonging to the central Gandhi Smarak Nidhi was allegedly usurped by its Maharashtra chapter and handed over to a realtor-developer for Rs 1.62 crore in 1999. Hazare was a prominent member of Maharashtra Gandhi Smarak Nidhi when the alleged land grab and sale happened. The case has now been brought to Supreme Court by Pune’s charity commissioner after passing through the district court and Bombay High Court. The central Gandhi Smarak Nidhi informed a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and S S Nijjar on Tuesday that the illegal transfer of title from the main unit to the state unit was done surreptitiously and illegally in 1977 and it came to light only in 1999 after a part of the property was handed over to Rohan Builders for Rs 1,62,92,500. Both the appellate charity commissioner and district court held that the Maharashtra unit had no title over the land, which belonged to the central Nidhi. However, the high court asked the district court to reconsider the Maharashtra unit’s contention that the central body took 24 years, until 2001, to challenge the transfer of property to the builder. Appearing for the central Nidhi in SC, senior advocate U U Lalit and counsel Neela Gokhale said an appeal against the illegal transfer of title in 1977 was filed in 2001 before the joint charity commissioner, which held that the state unit had no ownership over the property and hence could not have transferred a portion of it to the builder. In this appeal before joint charity commissioner, Kisanrao Baburao aka Anna Saheb Hazare was shown as respondent number 8 as a member of the state unit.