Flip, flop, flip: Maya returns land to Railways

Mayawati also said she had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking for a package of Rs 5,000 crore for the revival of industries that had shut down in Amethi and Rae Bareli. A copy of the letter had been marked to Sonia Gandhi, she said

The land had led to a direct confrontation between Mayawati and Sonia Gandhi with the Congress president daring the UP chief minister to put her in jail.

Mayawati on Saturday said the report of Net Ram, her Principal Secretary, who was assigned to inquire into the matter after the land allotment was cancelled, was presented to the state cabinet before it took the decision.

Mayawati said the initial allotment of the land to the Railways without the cabinet approval was illegal. 8220;I had given an in-principle approval for the allotment of the land for the RCF in May 2008. Later, the issue should have been placed before the cabinet, but the land was allotted without seeking the approval of the cabinet,8221; she said.

Terming the protest by the Congress over the cancellation of the land allotment as 8220;drama8221;, Mayawati said it was enacted by the Congress only to draw political mileage ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The fact, however, is that the government had tied itself in knots while explaining its action.

8226; It claimed to have taken back the land on the basis of a report from the District Magistrate which said that there was resentment among villagers and this might lead to self-immolations and a 8220;Singur-like8221; situation. However, it soon became clear that there was no resentment against the project; in fact, locals, including her own partymen, wanted the project to come up and the resentment was against the government8217;s action.

8226; Soon, the government stopped talking of the anger of the farmers. Instead, it tried to defend its action by arguing that the allotment suffered from serious procedural flaws such as the absence of a cabinet approval.

8226; However, one of Mayawati8217;s principal secretaries, Vijay Shanker Pandey, in his capacity as Divisional Commissioner of Lucknow, had been dealing with the matter all along. However, while Principal Secretary Revenue Balwinder Kumar and another Principal Secretary to Chief Minister V N Garg were removed after the 8220;fiasco8221;, Pandey was elevated and posted as additional cabinet secretary.

8226; The biggest problem, however, was defending the cancellation in the high court. The allotment was made after the Railways had completed all formalities and paid the cost of land. The entries in the revenue records were in Railway8217;s favour and it had already spent a lot of money on developing the land. On a petition moved by the Union Government and the Railways, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court ordered that the Railways8217; possession of the land will not be disturbed, restrained the UP government from allotting the land to anyone else, and fixed the next hearing for October 22.

State Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi described the decision as the victory of the struggle of the people of Rae Bareli and Amethi.