HC stays Maya’s order cancelling land allotment
Written by Writer on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
HC stays Maya’s order cancelling land allotment
IST,TNN
NEW DELHI: Unfazed by high court staying her government’s order cancelling the allotment of land for a rail coach factory in Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency of Rae Bareli, UP chief minister Mayawati ramped up the confrontation with Congress forcing the cancellation of a public meeting by the Congress chief. ( Watch )
The district administration of Rae Bareli, citing the prohibitory orders issued in view of Navaratra festivities, made it plain to Congress that it cannot go ahead with the rally Sonia Gandhi had planned to address.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court, while staying the revocation of allocation of land for the rail coach project, ordered a status quo to the ambitious project. While this left no room for the Congress chief and the railway minister to hold the ceremony marking the commencement of work at the coach factory site, Congress had decided to stick to its plan for Sonia Gandhi’s rally.
With Mayawati, however, dropping clear hints that the Congress chief may face action if she did not drop the plan for the rally, the party had to scale down her engagements in Rae Bareli. Sonia Gandhi will now address a meeting of party workers at a guest house, to steer clear of any trouble at the hands of a determined Mayawati who has made few bones of her determination to trouble Congress.
The order cancelling the allotment of land for the project in Sonia Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency has sharply aggravated the tension between the two sides, and may force Congress to reconsider its options for the largest state, especially whether it should have an alliance with the Samajwadi Party when the latter refuses to leave enough number of constituencies to it.
The order of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC meant the Congress chief would not be able to perform ‘bhumi poojan’ for the factory on the land on Tuesday, nor would the state government be able to handover the land to the gram sabha as the Mayawati government had earlier planned while cancelling the allotment. The state government also submitted an undertaking in the court stating: ‘‘It is neither going to take back the land from the railways, or make any construction thereon or allot the land in favour of anybody till final order of the court.”
The order, which came as a huge relief for the supporters of the project, was delivered by Justice Pradeep Kant and Justice Shabihul Hasnain on separate petitions filed by the railway ministry and a PIL by Dinesh Chandra Mishra, a villager. Outgoing Lucknow divisional commissioner Vijai Shanker Pandey had passed an order on October 11 cancelling the allotment of land for the rail coach factory and asking for the land to be given back to the gram sabha.
Challenging the commissioner’s order, the petitioners requested the court to restrain the state government from interfering in the process.
Appearing for the state government, special counsel L P Mishra and chief standing counsel Devendra Upadhyay contended that since the villagers had been opposing the factory, which might cause a law and order problem in the area, the allotment had been cancelled. The lawyers sought time for filing reply against the petitions and informed the court that the government was not going to disturb status of the land.
Just before it was forced to call off the plans for a rally in Rae Bareli, Congress gave vent to its anger against Mayawati, asking her to think of the consequences of her ‘vindictive’ action in stymieing the railway project in Sonia’s parliamentary constituency.
“About 45% of all funds received by the Centre are given back to the states,” party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said hinting at the repercussions if the federal arrangement was disrupted for the sake of petty politicking.
“Can a state government cancel such a major, public-interest project if it cares for the federal concept?” he asked.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh welcomed the high court intervention and wondered why the state government had to deny land when there had been no protests by farmers. “Cancellation of the land allotment was politically motivated and it’s difficult to fathom how a CM could do this,” Singh said.
Party managers reckon that if the high court allows the commencement of work on the project with the potential to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, it will be difficult for Mayawati to pack it off.
