Plot allotted to BJP leader; Dhumal summons records

Kapoor confirmed that the Himachal Pradesh Housing and Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) allotted him the plot,but asserted that “everything has been done as per norms and precedents prevailing in HIMUDA”.

“I applied for the plot and got it at the price these were being sold earlier. Where is the illegality? So many other people,including politicians (of both BJP and Congress),their kin and government servants,have got plots under discretionary quota,” he told The Indian Express.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal,however,expressed his anger on the issue. “Personally speaking,I am against all such discretionary allotments. This should not have been done in my government. I have asked the department (HIMUDA) to submit all the details as I am told that a lot of discretionary quota allotments were done during the earlier regime. We will have an in-depth look into this.”

According to reports,the plot was allotted to Kapoor despite Principal Secretary (Housing) Deepak Sanan having passed specific directions to HIMUDA not to make allotments under discretionary quota. “I think I had told them not to do this. If they have done so,it is really a surprise for me,” said Sanan.

HIMUDA officials,however,claimed the particular plot allotted to Kapoor was in addition to those carved out under a scheme and allotted through auctions. “This was a patch that was left out. The HIMUDA chairman (Housing Minister Mohinder Singh) was authorised by the board of directors to allot the patch using his discretionary quota,” said a senior HIMUDA official.

Earlier,Industries Minister Krishan Kapoor,who was previously a housing minister,had allotted a plot to himself at Dharamsala,but surrendered it immediately after media reports highlighted this.

A list of beneficiaries is prepared by the government and placed in the state Assembly during the Monsoon Session listed 49 allotments under discretionary quotas — both during the present regime and that of the Congress.