The slow rate of allotment of plots at the Sigaddi growth centre in Pauri district is due to the “faulty” policy of bidding adopted by the government-run State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (SIDCUL), a CAG report has said.
Priorities were given to making more money by way of allotment at the growth centre, said the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
The scheme to set up the growth centre was introduced by the government to encourage industrialisation in backward areas. Under this scheme, a growth centre was sanctioned in December 2003. A total of 100 acres of land was acquired by SIDCUL for the growth centre, out of which 60.9 acres were developed for allotment to the entrepreneurs.
Records of SIDCUL, which is the nodal agency for industrial development, showed that only 32.9 acres of land had been allotted to 37 industrial units and the remaining 27.9 acres were lying unused till August 2010, the report said.
Out of the above allotments, 29.4 acres of land was allotted by SIDUCL to 31 units during the year 2005-07 at a fixed price of Rs 450 per sq metre and only 3.5 acres of land was allotted to six units during the last three financial years, it said.
The audit observed the slow rate of allotment was mainly due to the “faulty” policy of bidding by SIDCUL from the year 2007-08, which stipulates the industrial plots will be allotted only to the highest bidder and to those bidders, who will quote their rate within the range of 30 per cent from highest bidder.
By adoption of this policy, only two allotments (at the rate Rs 2,800 per sq metre and Rs 2,200 per sq metre) were finalised through the bidding process comprising 27 applicants as there were huge variations between the rates quoted by the bidders.
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Subsequently, the state government in July 2008 also issued an order that further allotment of plots would be made at the rate of 125 per cent of the last allotment of industrial estates, according to which, plots for only four units were allotted at the rate of Rs 3,500 per sq metre up to August 2010, the report said.
Thus, the priorities were given to making more money by way of allotment at higher rates instead of encouragement of industrialisation in backward area as per policy of the government, which resulted in 45.9 percent of industrial land remaining vacant in the growth centre, the report said.