No finding in CAG report of 'undue favours' to Robert Vadra: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress today said there is no finding in a CAG report of granting of "undue favours" by the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda government to Robert Vadra's company and accused the current BJP regime in Haryana of "patent mala fide" in the matter.

Party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said facts must be examined before "proceeding to hold the previous Congress government in Haryana guilty based on half truth, innuendos and insinuations".

In a statement, he said the Accountant General of Haryana has neither indicted the previous Congress government nor Vadra or Skylight Hospitality Private Limited for any violation of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 or any rules or policy.

In its report for 2013-14, tabled in the Haryana Assembly yesterday, the CAG came down heavily on the Town and Country Planning Department.

"... The department neither at the time of granting in-principle approval nor at the time of formal approval for transfer of licences ensured that net profit beyond 15 per cent of the total cost accrues to public exchequer.

"This enabled the developers to earn huge profits merely by selling the land while the government had to forego sizeable amount," the CAG report said.

According to Surjewala, the deposit of profit beyond 15 per cent applies only to completed projects and not to ongoing projects, which are permitted to be "sold/transferred in accordance with the Haryana Act of 1975".

"As Skylight Hospitality Private Limited had sold/ transferred its licence for 2.7 acres of land without completing the project, this condition did not apply at all. Hence, no law, rule or policy was violated by government of Haryana," he said.

Surjewala, who was a minister in the erstwhile Congress government of Haryana, claimed that since the inception of Haryana and the enactment of the Act of 1975, the state government has not received a "single rupee" in revenue towards 15 per cent profit clause.

He claimed that according to his information, the principal accountant general of Haryana has sought clarifications on some issues by issuing due notices to the BJP government in the state.

He said that the present government of Haryana chose not to reply or bring on record the aforesaid "incontrovertible" facts and statutory provisions leading to finalisation of interim preliminary objections of CAG.

"Once an ex-parte report of CAG is already submitted to the Legislature, filing of a reply to the objections raised by CAG by state government is itself meaningless and reflective of patent mala fides and mal-intention on its part," he added.