Housing project rakes up controversy

A controversy is brewing in Uttarakhand after the state government accorded permission to Mumbai-based Citurgia Biochemical for a housing project. The firm produces chemical carbonate at its Rishikesh plant.

A lockout was declared in the factory in 2003 after it became sick and the matter was referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).

Though the company maintained the permission for the housing project was accorded under a BIFR revival scheme, the Opposition, however, smells rat. As result, the Uttarakhand Assembly was adjourned repeatedly today amid pandemonium after the Opposition sought a CBI probe into what they claimed the "sale of vast land belonging to the factory to private developers at throw-away price as well as in gross violation of environmental norms."

A series of tax sops like exemption in stamp duty fees was also given to the private developers, which are now constructing a housing colony in the area where once the factory stood, leader of the Opposition Harak Singh Rawat alleged.

They alleged that the government in last October issued a notification to change the land use pattern to facilitate the housing project in the factory premises after the company sought permission. The Citurgia company wanted to sale a part of the factory's land to raise funds for its revival as part of the BIFR revival scheme.

In 2007, the then Chief Minister N D Tiwari had sought legal opinion over the matter. But when the BJP government came to power, the matter again came to the notice of government which in turn bent rules to allow the construction of a housing project there, Rawat alleged. "Since the environmental norms are very stringent, permission for a housing project cannot be given near the Ganga river at Rishikesh," he claimed.

On the other hand, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant denied the charges leveled by the opposition saying it was trying to tarnish the image of the government.