HC junks PIL alleging land purchase scam in solar park project

The Gujarat High Court today dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) which alleges a land purchase scam for the state's solar park project at Charanka village in Santalpur block of Patan district.
A two-judge bench of the High Court, comprising acting Chief Justice V M Sahai and Justice R P Dholaria, dismissed the PIL which alleged that around 918 hectares of land was purchased by the state government in 2011 by paying a price 20 times more than its market rate.
The land was purchased by state-run Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) and the PIL had alleged that Chief Secretary D J Pandian was involved in the alleged scam.

Pandian was Managing Director (MD) of the state-run Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) in 2011 when the land was purchased. He was promoted as chief secretary in October last year.
On August 27, 2014, the High Court had directed a probe against the chief secretary for his role in the alleged excess payment of compensation for acquiring land for a solar park.
Gujarat government had probed the matter through its revenue department and given a clean chit to Pandian in its report placed before the High Court on Decemmber 20 last year.
The High court had acted on the PIL filed by a local Congress leader Farsu Goklani who had alleged that a small group of people had purchased a large chunk of land in Charanka just before the issuance of the 2011 notification that a solar park would be established near Charanka village.

Later, GPCL purchased the 918-hectare land from those people by paying them upto Rs 51 lakh against the last sale price of Rs 1 lakh for the same plot, within a year, the PIL had alleged.