Click to play videoChandigarh: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday registered two separate preliminary enquiries into former Punjab governor and former Indian Army chief General SF Rodrigues' involvement in a land scam.
CBI took up the matter in response to an expose done by CNN-IBN in October 2009 that showed how the governor was unjustly awarding mega projects to a few builders.
The two projects being investigated by the Anti corruption branch of the CBI are the Theme-cum-Amusement Park and the Film City Project.
An enquiry was held by the Central Vigilance Commission in December 2008 that had brought the irregularities to light.
The Theme-cum-Amusement Park was conceptualized on a 73.65 acre land in Sarang-purand village and awarded to Unitech Ltd by the Chandigarh administration without approvals, while the Film City Project on an adjacent plot was awarded to Parasavnath Developers at an abysmally low price.
A Home Ministry internal audit reports added fuel to the fire saying there were several other cases of land allotment to top builders at abysmally low prices.
Both the Congress and BJP had been demanding action in the cases.
CNN-IBN has details of the internal audit report of the Home Ministry that opened a can of worms.
According to the report land for five-star hotel was given to a builder who did not even deposit the earnest money
The Home Ministry report also questioned why a steep reduction of fees was given for campus sites of IT companies inside an IT Park.
The allotments made for IT companies are instead being used for retail business, car manufacturers and life insurance companies.
One of the country's top builders, headquartered in Delhi, was given land at a throwaway price inside the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park
The total loss incurred by the Chandigarh administration due to reduced prices is more than Rs 150 crore
The Home Ministry audit report even questioned the land acquisition for the Phase 3 of the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park.
According to the report land was allotted to a company in the Special Economic Zone even though the company had not applied for it.
Land was allotted to yet another company that did not even deposit processing fees for application
No IT professionals were allotted flat in the IT habitat project called Pride Asia.
Originally, only 10 per cent of these flats were reserved for IT professionals
A month after CNN-IBN reported the scam in October 2009, the government scrapped the deals. All deals worth about Rs 3,000 to 4,000 crore came under the CBI scanner after the scam.
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