Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said an inquiry is underway in the case pertaining to alleged flouting of norms by the previous Congress regime to clear over 3,000 sq m land in Panchkula to Associated Journals Limited (AJL) over 10 years ago.
“A departmental inquiry is being conducted in the matter of the National Herald case after which appropriate action would be taken,” Khattar said in Panchkula on the sidelines of a function, an official release said here.
On Thursday, state minister Anil Vij had trained guns on the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress regime, alleging that the former chief minister had gone out of the way to clear over 3,000 sq m land in Panchkula to AJL 10 years ago.
“Former Chief Minister of Haryana B S Hooda was so eager to oblige Gandhi Parivar in the National Herald case that he himself signed the illegal order,” Vij had alleged.
He had also alleged that rules had been flouted by the former Chief Minister “despite negative noting on the file” by concerned officers.
Vij had also alleged that “Hooda was in a hurry to oblige his political masters. He even did not care about the legal advice given to him at that time which was against making this allotment…”
Meanwhile, the government appeared to be talking in different voices when another state minister Ram Bilas Sharma today said that an inquiry into clearance of the plot to AJL and the allotment of 13 industrial plots in Panchkula nearly three years ago would be conducted by an independent agency.
“An FIR has already been registered in the industrial plot allotment case, in which plots were given away during the previous regime to favourites. Also, in the AJL case, the previous Congress government-led by Hooda moved with tremendous speed going out of the way to clear all formalities in a single day,” Sharma told reporters.
Further commenting on the National Herald case, Sharma said, “Though the Congress has remained in power for 60 years, its foundation has been shaken by one act of Subramanian Swamy”.
He rejected allegations that the BJP government was acting out of vendetta.
“All wrongdoings of the previous government will be probed,” he stated.
Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has refuted charges that any favour had been shown to anyone or that rules were bent in AJL case or in the matter pertaining to the allotment of the industrial plots in Panchkula.