With the SP giving pinpricks to the UPA government at the Centre, the Congress Party too has taken recourse to cornering the Akhilesh Yadav government.
The Congress accused the state government of being involved in a Rs 700 crore scam by illegal registry of 25 acres of land at Sector 118 in Noida, of National Capital Region (NCR). The Congress demanded a CBI probe alleging that the state agencies could be puppets in the hands of the SP government.
Talking on the issue, Congress MlA Akhilesh Pratap Singh said that soon after coming to power the Akhilesh Yadav government ordered a high-level probe in March 2012. Singh said : " The government does not seem interested in acting against the construction company evena as the probe report indicated irregularities and the role of IAS / PCS officers including the then CEO Capt SK Dwivedi."
''I have asked the UP government to order a CBI probe into the scam which cost the state exchequer around Rs 700 crore. It should be attached to other probes of Noida land scam being done by the CBI at present,'' Singh told the media in lucknow on Friday afternoon.
The Congress MlA has written to CM Akhilesh Yadav and a copy was sent to Prime minister Manmohan Singh. ''I will approach the UP lokayukta, if there is no convincing response from the UP government,'' he added.
Singh claimed that as per the probe report tabled in June 2012, the group housing land of 1,33,750 square meters was auctioned in 2007 when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the CM. The IVRCl got the land through a tender and he paid 10 per cent of the total land value of Rs 228.43 crore at the rate of Rs 17,050 per square meter.
"But surprisingly, the company kept quite for five years of the BSP regime and did not pay the required 30 per cent within a month of the contract being awarded. As the SP government came to power after the 2012 Assembly polls, a senior UP government oficer posted in Noida revived the contract for the company by waiving off the interest of Rs 152 crore.," pointed out Singh.He further pointed out that while the contract was awarded to IVRCl, the land was registered against Supertek Constuction. "When the company did not pay 30 per cent despite getting the contract in a month, the contract should have automatically got cancelled. But due to complicity of government officials, the land was handed over to the company illegally," he said.
The Congress MlA further said had the tender process been carried out afresh, the government could have earned revenue to the tune of Rs 500 crore as the fixed price of the land had gone up from Rs 17,050 / square meter to Rs 37,780 / square meter.
''An official, now promoted to IAS cadre, involved in the scam was removed from the Noida before Akhilesh Yadav took the CM's oath on March 15, 2012. But now the government was overlooking the irregularities,'' the Congress MlA said.
"The government has also thrown the report of the high-level probe committee to the winds. The report had detected several lapses in the deal and even recommended that FIRs be lodged against IAS / PCS officials for handing out undue favour to the company," contended Singh.