CAG detects irregularities in industrial land allotment in Bihar

The govt auditor's report indicts the state government for irregular allotments and lack of a fair and transparent allotment system

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has discovered serious irregularities in allotment of industrial lands in Bihar.

The government auditor's report indicts the state government for irregular allotments and lack of a fair and transparent allotment system. The report slammed the Bihar industrial Area Development Authority (BIADA) for allotments without auctions and stated that in some cases industrial lands were allotted for non industrial purposes. CAG also found that records were manipulated to favour agencies and influential applicants were given "out of turn" allotments.

The report states, "BIADA decided on 2007 that allotment of the plots should be done through auction. The objective was to fetch good prices and ensure transparency. However, the record disclosed that despite this decision, BIADA continued following "first come, first serve" policy."

However, the government auditor detected serious flaws even in this system as there was no transparent system. "There was no system for documentation of received applications and BIADA had no mechanism to ascertain the priority of them," said the CAG. Scrutiny also revealed that many applications were not submitted with approved project reports, yet the land was allotted to them.

The auditor also found that in 61 cases, applicants were given "out of turn" allotments. It was surprising to note that 54 of these cases were approved before the BIADA board took up their cases. The auditor several found arbitrary and discriminatory allotments in Patna region as 174 allotments were directly presented before the project clearance committee without any documentation.

The CAG also noted that industrial land was given even for non industrial purposes. Scrutiny of records disclosed that BIADA allotted 105.09 acres of industrial land to 46 entrepreneurs for non industrial uses.

There were also cases of allotment of excess land beyond the prescribed norms without any justification. The auditor reported that a total of 33.71 acres of excess land was allotted to entrepreneurs without any justification.