'No anomaly in land allotment to Bhushans'

The Noida Development Authority (NDA) has refuted claims that lawyer Shanti Bhushan and his son Jayant, had been allotted land in Noida under a discretionary quota.

CEO Rama Raman told Business Standard on Friday that the Bhushans purchased the plots under a special scheme where individuals were allotted 10,000 square metre-plots on the basis of their ability to pay. The scheme, announced in January 2009 for the plots, was not based on a lottery, unlike in other housing schemes.

“We had about 160 applicants and 97 or 98 of those have got the plots so far and the Bhushans were among them. We are still interviewing the applicants and more applicants may get plots if they qualify,” said Raman. The interviews, he said, were primarily to ascertain whether the applicants had the ability to pay the amount and to ensure none of them were property dealers.

Asked about the controversy over the land allotment scheme, Raman said: “It was part of the campaign.” Asked if civil society members of the joint committee to draft the anti-corruption bill, like Arvind Kejriwal or Kiran Bedi, had approached the authority to verify the claims in the media and political circles about the Bhushans receiving plots under a discretionary quota, he said: “No one has approached the authority for a clarification.”

Shanti Bhushan is co-chairperson of the joint committee. He was charged with receiving farmhouse plots under a discretionary quota and of paying only Rs 31 lakh for plots that cost over Rs 3 crore. He had denied the charges and had offered to return the plots if there was anything irregular with the scheme or the allotments made to them. He has also said the money paid was the initial amount for the plot i.e. Rs 3,100 per square metre.

Expelled Samajwadi Party MP Amar Singh had alleged they had got the plots under a discretionary quota and he had offered to buy the plots from the Bhushans for Rs 10 crore each.