PANAJI
The Health Minister has refuted allegations made by Goa Pradesh Congress President Girish Chodankar regarding the SEZ plots auction and has sent a legal notice to Chodankar demanding either an apology or withdrawal of statement in 24 hours."Girish Chodankar has made a very irresponsible statement. I am countering that statement as it involves my name and I being an industries minister," said health minister in a media release.
"I have sent a 24 hour notice to Girish Chodankar either to apologise or withdraw his statement," he said.
He said that file copy about the IDC plot is available with me for anyone to inspect.
"I have no role to play as far as the SEZ auction is concerned. I will write to the Chief Secretary that the allegations made by Girish Chodankar should be investigated," he added.
The health minister came down heavily on Girish Chodankar stating that Congress is getting eradicated in state and his father Pratapsing Rane who had his innings with Congress has no sympathy with Girish Chodankar.
GPCC president Girish Chodankar has alleged that there is multi-crore scam in auctioning reposessed SEZ plots belonging to IDC and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should initiate an inquiry into multi-crore scam.
Chodankar has said that GIDC after repossessing land from SEZ promoters developed it into smaller plots and auctioned it without obtaining approval from concerned agencies and without following due procedures and again without RERA permissions.
In 2016 the law pertaining to open spaces in respect of the industrial estates maintained by GIDC was changed and they were allowed to maintain 7.5% of the area as open space instead of 15%. In view of the same, quite a good amount of land was made available as open space requirement was reduced by 7.5% and GSIDC got 1.5 to 2 lakh excess land.
Chodankar claimed that these excess land of nearly 2 lakh were subdivided into plots and are being auctioned without due compliance of law. He said that the RERA Act, TCP provisions and IDC rules have been violated by the government.
