‘Rs 5 lakh per acre for Kanchi trust, Rs 88 lakh per acre for old age home’

On March 10, 2004, the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham procured prime land in South Delhi’s Sector 1, R K Puram. The land had been lying vacant since then—except for a few squatters—but a blue board sprang up in December that quite clearly identified the land’s ownership: ‘Sri Chandra Mouleeswaraya Namaha, Sri Kanchi Kama Koti Peetam, Charitable Trust Land, 1, Salai Street, Kancheepuram, Chennai.’

The Chandra committee found that the 2,147 sqm plot was given to the Trust at a throwaway price of Rs 5 lakh per acre.

In contrast, land for an old age home-cum-women’s hostel in Sector 7 of R K Puram was given at Rs 88 lakh per acre.

That apart, the National Federation of Blind had to pay Rs 88 lakh per acre for a training centre in the comparatively-less coveted North-West Delhi area.

Asked about land allotted to the Kanchi Trust, Yogesh Chandra told The Indian Express: ‘‘All allotments made from 1998 until now have been studied.’’

The Kanchi Trust allotment, the committee found, was made under the category of ‘‘socio-cultural institutions’’.

Of the 17 cases of land allotted to religious institutions between 1998 and 2004 that it studied, the committee found that nine were for temples, two for gurudwaras and others for offices of mainly Hindu religious organisations. The list did not have a single mosque.