A day after a court struck down dozens of land allotments made during the erstwhile Left Front government, former West Bengal housing minister Gautam Deb said the allotments were made as per Supreme Court guidelines.
Upholding the cancellation of allotment of land at Rajarhat New Town on eastern fringes of the city, Justice Sanjib Banerjee of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday described the allotments as "most capricious, inequitable and feudal exercise of discretion".
The court slammed Deb for misusing his discretionary power as the chairman of the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) - the agency entrusted with planning and executing the project.
After the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, it cancelled these allotments prompting the allottees to challenge the cancellation in the high court.
Deb, a Communist Party of India-Marxist, leader asserted the allotments were made as per the Supreme Court guidelines and also accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of misusing her discretionary power to make allotments.
"As per the SC guidelines, the HIDCO chairperson has a discretionary quota not exceeding five percent in choosing the recipients of land deeds. Allotment under this quota were made by a committee following the court guideless," said Deb.
"She (Mamata Banerjee) is trying every tactic to put me behind bars. As the HIDCO chairperson, I had allotted 105 land deeds from 2003 to 2010. But she has allotted 147 land deeds from 2011 to 2014," Deb said calling for the "removal of Banerjee as the chief minister to save Bengal".