‘Rules may have been bent to get Intel to Israel and not to India’

‘‘The efficiency of the city in advancing the plan vanquished the Indian Government, which had pressed the international Intel management to transfer the Haifa facility to India,’’ the daily quoted the municipality to have said in response.

The state comptroller is looking into how the land, which had been classified for public use, was re-zoned, the report said.

The land was reportedly sold to Intel without a tender process and the company also received permission to build a private bridge, issues that the watchdog feels need further clarification.

The state comptroller wants to know how it could take only nine months for a plan to pass all the stages of the local, regional and national planning committees, protests, appeals and so on.

It wants to look into the way the deal was made to ensure if it was a rare case of efficiency among the planning bodies or an illegal collaboration to gain approval for a plan ridden with problems, the daily said.