Modi gave away ecologically sensitive land for factory: Congress

The Congress Tuesday alleged that BJP leader Narendra Modi gave away ecologically sensitive land in Gujarat to a detergent company.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said at a press conference Tuesday that Modi in 2007 allocated 8,500 acres of land to a detergent company to set up a cement factory in Bhavnagar district.

"Of the total 8,500 acres, 1,000 acres belonged to a reservoir," said Singhvi.

He added in 2002, Kamal Trivedi, the then additional attorney general of Gujarat, submitted an affidavit in the Gujarat High Court, saying that "no water body will be alienated or given away".

However, in 2007, Trivedi, who had risen to become the state's advocate general, advised the state government that the land belonging to a reservoir can be given away, said Singhvi.

He said 142 cases have been fought between the said company and the state of Gujarat, of which the latter lost 98 cases.

"The firm representing the company in all these cases was Trivedi and Gupta Advocates, owned by the wife of Trivedi," he said.

Of the 98 cases in which the state government lost, 24 were argued by the AG himself, said Singhvi.

"Modi has created a machinery by subverting the constitutional process to promote crony capitalism," he alleged.