Guj Govt denies land scam

Gandhinagar, Sep 7 (UNI) The Gujarat Government today denied the alleged charges levelled by Leader of the opposition in the state Gujarat Assembly Arjun Modhwadia that land allotted to Delhi based DLF for setting up an IT Park in Gandhinagar was a large-scale land scam.

Mr Modhwadia had told mediapersons yesterday that Narendra Modi's BJP Government had allocated 25 acres of farming land to DLF at a throwaway price of Rs 50 crore against its existing market value of Rs 125 crore.

Gujarat Finance Minister Saurabh Patel in a statement here denied the charges, describing them as one more bluff of the Congress leader to malign the image of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Government.

''In fact, the Congress led UPA Government had granted permission to DLF for setting up an IT (SEZ) Park in Gandhinagar and land allocation was done in the purview of rules and regulation of Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Mr Patel said.

The Minister said the IT SEZ was being set up with a view to generate large scale software and other employment opportunities in Gujarat and allegations of corruption levelled by Mr Modhwadia were baseless and whimsical.

He clarified that the valuation of alloted land made by the Congress leader was exhorbitant as the land falls outside the city limit thus, it cannot be valued with existing market prices of land within the city.

The Minister also denied charges that the same land was demanded by IT giant firms TCS and Wipro.

UNI