Noida: The Farmhouse Plan brought in Noida, Uttar Pradesh during the year 2008-11 did not have the necessary approval of the State Government and due to the suspicious allocation in this scheme. The exchequer suffered a loss of Rs 2,833 crore. In the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) presented in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Friday, many serious questions were raised on the Noida farmhouse scheme. In this, many irregularities have also been mentioned in the policies of the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida Authority).
The report also highlights several loopholes in the Noida Authority’s policies, planning, land acquisition, allocation of properties and internal controls. According to this, due to these shortcomings of the Authority, there was a loss of crores of rupees to the exchequer. In this report of about 500 pages, the post-2005 period has been reviewed. When asked about this report of the CAG, the Noida Authority said that it has not studied this report yet.
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The chief executive officer of the authority, Ritu Maheshwari, told PTI-language, “The lapses related to allocation in the past are being rectified now. We agreed with some of the points raised in the draft report while on some points the Authority had counter-factualised. The final report is yet to be studied.” Maheshwari, a senior officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), said that after studying the report, steps will be taken as per the instructions received from the government.
On the allotment of farmhouse plots, the CAG has said that during the year 2008-11, two such schemes were brought in which 157 applicants were allotted land with an area of 18.37 lakh square meters. But as per the CAG report, both the farmhouse plans were brought without prior permission and due process. “The farmhouse category was added without the building regulation permission of the Uttar Pradesh government,” the report says.
According to this, both these plans were not in line with the regional plan of the authority, which had talked about development of farmhouse away from the residential area. Along with this, the CAG has also raised questions about keeping the reserve price low for farmhouse plots. “The Noida authority purchased land from farmers and allotted farmhouse plots adjacent to a developed area with corporate offices,” says the report.
The CAG in its report has also raised questions on keeping the rates of farmhouse plots too low. “Plots were also given at Rs 3,100 per square meter to allottees who were able to pay the market rate as against the minimum rate of Rs 14,400 per square meter in 2008-09,” the report says.
The report said that the allotment of plots at such a low rate was highly questionable and caused undue benefit of Rs 2,833 crore to the allottees, causing huge financial loss to the authority. He has also said that the allotment of plots is not done in a transparent manner. (agency)