Nirupam seeks action against Gadkari, Tawde over multiple DINs

Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam today wrote a letter to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), seeking prosecution of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra minister Vinod Tawde for allegedly possessing multiple Director Identification Numbers (DINs), a punishable offence.
Quoting from MCA's website, he said Union Transport Minister Gadkari is in possession of 6 DINs, while Education Minister of Maharashtra Tawde has three such numbers against his name.
DIN is a unique 8 digit number that is required for any existing or proposed Director of a company. Tawde has claimed only one of the three DINs had been approved.
"A press release from your Ministry, issued on July 11, 2014, said people with duplicate DINs had been identified and that directions had been issued to verify these.

"It is surprising that despite 18 months having passed since this release, such high profile individuals are still able to hold multiple DINs," the letter written to Secretary of Ministry of Corporate Affairs Tapan Ray stated.
"Tawde claimed to the media that one of his three DINs had lapsed while the other was suspended. If this is in fact the case, I ask you to initiate a full inquiry into why the website shows him having 3 DINs," the Congress leader added.

The former Lok Sabha MP said Section 155 of the Companies Act expressly prohibits an individual from holding more than one DIN, while Section 159 provides for up to 6 months of imprisonment and Rs 50,000 penalty for those holding multiple DINs.

(Reopens BES 31)
Meanwhile, reacting to Nirupam's allegations on the land given to Patanjali by MADC, an official from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said, "Agro processing zone was created in non-SEZ area of MIHAN and rates for agro zone land area were decided by a committee of four secretaries."
"Open tenders were called quoting the aforesaid upset price. After the third call, Patanjali was the only bidder and it quoted more than the upset price, so the company was awarded the land as per the CVC norms as it was third call and rates quoted were not below those decided by the secretary committee," the official said.

"Still, 150 hectares of land was available, but there was no taker. Patanjali has taken the land in SEZ at the market rate. Earlier, the government had given concession to many business houses in MIHAN. The rate of Patanjali for agro processing is nearly the same, at which the previous government gave land to Boeing for Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO)," the official added.
On the land allotted to Anil Ambani's Reliance Aerospace, the official said, "The land has been allotted to Anil Ambani as per the prevailing market rate of Rs 60 lakh/acre. This rate was decided during the previous government regime in 2010. Still, 400 hectares of land is available. Land at this rate is available to anyone," the official said.