JAIPUR: The Congress has alleged serious violation of norms in allotment of land to the Deendayal Upadhyaya Memorial Trust here. The land allotment, carried out by the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) three months ago, has caused a loss of Rs. 8.25 crore to the State exchequer, the party has said.

"It is all the more unethical on the part of the Government to allocate the land, measuring 7693.40 sq metre at the rate of Rs.562.50 per sq metre, as Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje herself is reportedly the chairperson of the Trust," Congress general secretary and former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said.

Talking to journalists here on Thursday, Mr. Gehlot said the land, in the Residency Scheme near the Civil Lines railway crossing, was worth Rs.8.65 crores but was given to the Deendayal Trust at a token price of Rs.43 lakhs. The JDA had recommended a price of Rs.11,250 per sq metre for the land, he added.

"The land allocation should be cancelled as it has violated rules and all norms of public probity," Mr. Gehlot said. Such allocations are allowed only in the case of organisations which are of three years old and have the audited annual accounts for the past three years. In the case of the Deendayal Trust the land was allocated this year even before its registration, he said. If the Bharatiya Janata Party also had plans to build an office on the plot it could have procured land for that purpose under the existing provisions in which all the major political parties are entitled for land to build offices, Mr. Gehlot observed.

Speaking about "lack of governance" and "all-pervading lawlessness" in the State under BJP rule, Mr. Gehlot said there had been umpteenth number of "padavs" (siege) by farmers and caste groups and several instances of roadblocks in the State in the past few months. The ongoing organisational elections in the BJP had added to the general lawlessness with the pro-Chief Minister and anti-Chief Minister groups virtually fighting it out, he pointed out.

"There had been numerous instances of police interventions in which a good number of people got hurt. Recently two of the major protests were against the Chief Minister herself when she laid the foundations for the Haj House and a flyover," Mr. Gehlot noted. "I don't think Ms. Raje is serious about administering the State," he said, adding that this was also evident from the indifference shown to the flood victims in Barmer, Pali and elsewhere.

Moreover there was an "extra-Constitutional authority" working in the State in Lalit Modi, Chairman of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, Mr. Gehlot alleged. The recent court order asking for a probe into the charges of extravagance and irregularities in the functioning of RCA had confirmed his earlier observations on Mr. Modi, he said.

Mr. Gehlot alleged Government connivance in buying of land by developers along the National Highway between Jaipur and Delhi and Jaipur and Ajmer.

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