Telco refutes land charges

PUNE, June 19: Refuting allegations that the allotment of 188 acres of land to Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited TELCO by th...

PUNE, June 19: Refuting allegations that the allotment of 188 acres of land to Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited TELCO by the Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority PCNTDA at Nigdi was illegal, the company has maintained that the enquiry report on the PCNTDA was based on inadequate data.

In a statement issued here, R M Nirmal, deputy general manager Human Resources, Telco charged that Telco was not given an opportunity of being heard by the enquiry officer. The report alleges that the allotment of land to Telco was illegal because the rate of Rs 25 per sq feet fixed for allotment was unjustified and moreover industrial use of the land should not have been permitted by PCNTDA. The report also alleged that the removal of reservations for a primary school and maternity home on the land were unjustified.

It may be mentioned here that Telco has located its car factory on this land at Chikhli near Pimpri which is expected to generate an annual revenue of almost Rs 1300 crore to the Central-State and local self-government. A company release mentioned that the company would also generate 4000 direct jobs and more than 25,000 indirect jobs in ancillaries and other sectors.

According to the company spokesman, if an opportunity of hearing was granted to Telco, valuable information could have been submitted to the enquiry officer which would have enabled the him to come to a logical conclusion.

8220; These very conclusions challenging the rate of Rs 25 per sq feet fixed for the land, conversion for the use of the land from the residential to industrial and also removal of reservations from the said land, had in fact been raised earlier in a public interest litigation filed by the local citizens of Pimpri-Chinchwad in the Bombay High Court, he stated. The Bombay High Court had dismissed this writ petition observing that the there was no breach of any legal provision in the allotment of land to Telco.

The judgment also observed that the Telco has an existing factory and for its extension land has been allotted by PCNTDA.

Similarly, the same contentions were raised by the one Bhimgir Devgir Gosavi and other farmer petitioners in a separate writ petition filed simultaneously in the Bombay High Court which was also rejected by the division bench. This decision of the Bombay High Court was challenged by the petitioner and other farmers in a special leave petition filed in the Supreme Court of India, it was dismissed by Justice J S Verma and Justice K S Paripooranan allowing the petitioners to withdraw the petition with advice that they may file a civil suit. Subsequently, the civil suit was dismissed by the civil court, Pune in 1995.

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8220; It is unfortunate that the Enquiry Officer erroneously presumed that the rate of Rs 25 per sq ft fixed was for the fully developed land. In fact this rate was charged from Telco for the totally undeveloped land which involved a huge expenditure for developing it,8221; the spokesman said.