Kalyan Govt fights corporate group over a four-yr-old land deal

LDA vice-chairman Prabhat Kumar has served notice to Sahara India to demolish the “illegal structures” erected in 170 acres of Sahara Shahar, a part of posh Vipul Khand of Gomati Nagar in Lucknow. The LDA says that the group has violated theLucknow Master Plan as there was no provision for “building a housing complex.”

LDA sources now allege that Sahara obtained 270 acres of LDA land (it bought 170 acres and was to get 100 acres of green belt on lease) at throwaway prices in 1994 in alleged connivance with the then LDA officials and the Lucknow Municipal Council. That is what the Authority wants to “rectify” now.

LDA officials say that there is an apparent loss of at least Rs 613 crore to the State exchequer if the cost of only 130 acres of commercial land is calculated at the present market rate of Rs 3,500 per square meter. (Forty acres were to be developed as green belt). The land was given to Sahara India Housing Limited (SIHL) for Rs 7.31 crore at the rate of Rs 125 per sq.m. Besides 100 acres of green-belt land was leased out at Rs one lakh per annum.

The whole deal was done at a speed which is amazing by bureaucratic standards. The LMC, though it did not possess any land, resolved on August 20, 1994 to enter housing sector byleasing out land to private builders. Fifteen days later, it asked the LDA to allot it 400 acres. LDA vice-chairman Anil Gupta on September 19, offered 225 acres to the LMC in Vipul Khand. Mukhya Nagar Adhikari of LMC BK Singh Yadav sent his acceptance the same day. The land was transferred to LMC within next two days and LMC passed it on to SIHL in another six days.

Before the LDA handed over possession of 86.48 acres to the LMC on December 3, 1994, the LMC had not only already allotted 130 acres for development to SIHL but also passed its lay-out plan on October 22.

The LDA now says SIHL violated the Lucknow Master Plan as there was no provision for housing complex. Out of 170 acres licensed to SIHL, 80 acres was meant for construction of commercial complex, 50 acres for recreational activities and parks, etc. and 40 acres for development as green belt, the LDA now says.

SIHL, however, announced a major housing scheme in 1995 called Sahara Shahar equipped with closed-circuit TV, health club, swimmingpool and a helipad to fly residents up to the airport. The houses cost from Rs 16 lakh for a single-bed room flat to Rs 50 lakh for a plush bungalow. The scheme had to be shelved due to lack of response.

“How can the land meant for construction of commercial complex be used for constructing a housing colony,” the LDA officials noted in their demolition notice to SIHL in April 1996 during President’s Rule.

DLA officials insist that the land still belongs to them since it had never been officially registered in the LMC name. Section 14 of UP Urban Land Planning and Development Act, 1974, specifies that the Act will supersede all earlier provisions and no development can take place without the urban development authority (LDA) permission. “Thus the layout plan sanctioned by the LMC has no legal standing unless approved by the LDA,” says Prabhat Kumar.

Sahara officials refute all allegations levelled against them by the LDA. “We have not violated the Master Plan. Our layout plan was duly passed byNagar Nigam with no-objection certificate from the LDA as well,” says chief law officer of the company, KK Sarkar.

He accuses the LDA of cheating Sahara by handing over only 75 acres of green belt instead of the agreed 100 acres. As for the 170 acres of land, SIHL had entered into an agreement with the LMC to use 130 acres for housing and commercial complex and remaining 40 acres for park, he says.

The demolition notice which was first sent in April 1996 was never implemented due to lack of political will, claims a senior LDA official. The sudden reappearance of the will to demolish has a lot to do with the change in government at Lucknow and, some say, Kalyan Singh’s long-standing rivalry with the group.

With a one-man demolition squad’, Prabhat Kumar, heading the LDA, things changed in April 1998. A spate of notices for demolition of “illegal construction” and cancellation of licence flooded SIHL and Sahara obtained a stay order from civil court, Malihabad.

Sahara India group chairman SubratoRoy placed a two-page advertisement in local newspapers last week accusing the Government and its officials of “obstructing” the good work being done by the group. In July, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Hukum Singh, replying to a joint-opposition motion seeking transfer of Prabhat Kumar, had accused the opposition of trying to protect the interests of the Sahara group.

This is not the first spat between the Sahara group of companies and BJP leaders, Kalyan Singh in particular. The BJP had accused Roy of masterminding “systematic rigging” of polling during the 1996 parliamentary elections, in favour of Samajwadi Party candidate, Raj Babbar.

Kalyan Singh’s relations with Sahara were never cordial. They further deteriorated when Roy spewed venom against the BJP at a private function attended by senior leaders of the Samajwadi Party including Mulayam Singh Yadav, two years ago. He also vowed never to let BJP leaders enter his premises. But still worse was withdrawal of invitation to Kalyan Singh for thesame function. But later the group began building bridges with the BJP.

Sahara Airlines had provided two aircraft to the BJP to “airlift” the 222 MLAs supporting Kalyan Singh, after the Centre had recommended President’s Rule in UP. When AB Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister in March, Sahara helicopters showered flower petals on him during his Lucknow visit. Roy invited BJP president Kushabhau Thakre for breakfast at his residence in Lucknow.

Such bonhomie, however, did not deter Prabhat Kumar from issuing successive show-cause notices to SHIL as to why the illegal construction in Sahara Shahar should not be demolished.

In a last-ditch effort, Roy has written to the Prime Minister seeking shelter against “inhuman treatment being meted out” to him and his family by the State administration. Copies of the letter were also sent to senior BJP leaders in the State and at the Centre.