As a state-run agency, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) was supposed to help in urbanisation and facilitate people in getting plots for houses in urban centres. But HUDA's own 'plot' in favouring influential people has come to haunt it, with controversial allotment over the years coming under the scrutiny of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
From bureaucrats, police officers, politicians, ministers, judges, serving and retired defence personnel and even their family members and other close aides - the category of influential people getting the plots is long. But the story does not end here.
Many of these beneficiaries have been allotted preferential plots by HUDA multiple times - ranging from two to over 30 plots.
Most beneficiaries have sold their plots at much higher market rates compared to the highly subsidised rates at which they were allotted the plots.
"The scam of allotment of these plots and their sale in the open markets would run into billions of rupees. Many people have benefitted from the largesse from the Haryana government," a retired HUDA official told IANS here.
Documents submitted by HUDA authorities to the high court and lists from the agency's own website show that two brothers, both retired colonels from the army, managed to get 31 plots allotted in various urban estates under the quota meant for defence personnel.
The allotments to these two officers, Karan Singh and Dharam Singh, were made between 1998 and 2004.
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"Taking advantage of a technicality, these allottees used to sell their earlier allotted plot before applying for a new one. They even used to give an affidavit that they did not possess a HUDA plot anywhere in Haryana at the time of applying for a new plot," the officer said.
In all, Karan Singh got 22 plots in his and his wife's names. These included three plots in Gurgaon, four each in Sonipat and Panipat, five in Rewari and one each in Faridabad, Hisar, Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Narnaul and Bahadurgarh.
The magnitude of the multiple plot allotment scam can be gauged from the fact that over 325 FIRs have been registered against the allottees by HUDA in recent months.
These include nearly 190 defence personnel who got plots for themselves and their kin. Out of these defence personnel, 76 got between three and nine plots allotted to themselves.
The allottees preferred Haryana's realty goldmines like Gurgaon, Faridabad (both adjoining national capital New Delhi) and Panchkula (adjoining Chandigarh). Other questionable plots have been allotted in urban estates in Panipat, Hisar, Kurukshetra, Sonipat, Sirsa, Bahadurgarh and other places.
The scam came to light after a whistle-blower property dealer S.K. Sharma got information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and filed complaints against the allottees with HUDA.
"Nothing happened to my complaint to HUDA regarding this. I then approached the high court," Sharma said.
While many allottees got preferential allotments under various categories, others opted for the discretionary quota (DQ) route in the past over three decades.
Many of the allottees, taking advantage of Haryana's Congress chief ministers, gave the same contact address in New Delhi - 24 Akbar Road (the Congress party's headquarters) and 10 Janpath (the official residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi). Majority of these plots have been sold off by the original allottees.
The 50-odd allottees from these two addresses included staff like drivers, clerks, gardeners and servants.
In a list of 37 influential people submitted to the high court recently, HUDA admitted that multiple plots were allotted.
The name of former chief election commissioner S.Y. Qureshi also figured in the recently submitted list.
(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)