A senior IAS officer of Haryana Ashok Khemka today said his action in the Vadra-DLF land-licence deal has been “vindicated in the CAG report but he continues to suffer the stigma of charge sheet.”
During the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government, the official had ordered the scrapping of the land deal between Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd (owned by Robert Vadra) and DLF, terming it as illegal. However, the previous Hooda government gave a clean chit to Vadra in the land deal.
“My action in the Vadra-DLF land-licence deal has been vindicated in the CAG report, but continue to suffer the stigma of charge sheet,” said Khemka in a tweet reacting to the CAG report.
In another tweet he said, “Real culprits sit in judgement over me. My pain and suffering may help to detox and cleanse the body politic.”
In his third tweet Khemka, currently posted as State Transport Commissioner, said “Black-marketing of licences and permits to cronies is loot of public wealth. Will action be taken against the black-marketers?”
“Undue favours” to builders, including Robert Vadra’s Skylight Hospitality, by the Haryana Government during the Congress regime has come under attack from the Comptroller and Auditor General.
In its report for the year 2013-14, tabled in the Haryana Assembly yesterday, the official auditor has come 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 the 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.
The BJP and other Congress rivals had trained their guns on the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, accusing it of showing favours to Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in his land deal with realty giant DLF.
Though the report did not name Vadra, his company, Skylight Hospitality, was named. Skylight Hospitality, the report noted, sold a prime 3.5 acre piece of land in Manesar in Gurgaon district to DLF in 2008 for Rs 58 crore.