High drama in Guj assembly over graft charges

Congress leader alleged land was given to private firm at throwaway price

PTI | March 5, 2010



The Gujarat assembly on Friday witnessed a high drama after the ruling BJP proposed breach of privilege motion against Congress leader Arjun Modhvadia following his allegations of corruption in a land deal for building a hotel in Surat.

Modhvadia on Thursday alleged corruption on the part of the Narendra Modi government in the land deal. The state government's contention was that the price of land given to the industrial house was fixed by the Supreme Court and there was no corruption in it.

Modhvadia challenged the government that if they proved his allegations wrong he would resign from his post and retire from public life.

However, following the debate in the assembly it was decided not to introduce the motion with the BJP claiming that the leader of opposition has apologised on behalf of Modhvadia's allegation made in the House.

While, Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil maintained that the motion was withdrawn after he cited specific rules of the assembly stating that such motion cannot be brought.

Modhvadia had alleged in the assembly that the Modi government had allotted 65,000 sq mt land to Chhatrala India Group of Hotels to build a seven-star hotel in Surat at a throwaway price, which has resulted into loss of Rs 500 crore to the government.

The Congress leader had claimed that the government had sold the land of the Navsari Agriculture University in over Rs.200 crore even though the prevailing market value of the said land was more than Rs.700 crore.

Government spokesperson Jaynarayan Vyas proposed the breach of privilege motion against Modhvadia and said that as a member of an august house, the Congress leader should not have made allegations against the government in the manner he did on Thursday.

The leader of the opposition opposed the motion saying that there was no provision in the rules of the assembly to bring breach of privilege motion against member for the reasons cited by Vyas.

There was a heated debate among members of both the party on the issue. Speaker of the House had to intervene number of times to control the outburst by members of both the parties.

Challenging the government, Modhvadia said,"I have been elected by the people to put forth their problems in the Assembly and I am bound by them."

"I have given documentary evidence in the house stating that it was under the pressure from the Chief Minister's office that the Surat district authorities sold the land at throw away prices," he said, adding that even the district officials were not agreed to the rates decided by the government.

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