Nagpur: Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation is in the limelight for bad reasons once again! The industrial body reportedly delayed the communication by 61 to 104 days, pertaining to its revised land prices, which made the authorities in concerned areas to allot land at previous rates which is almost half of the revised ones. This practice caused a revenue loss of Rs 21.98 crore to the State, said the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its recent report on the state’s public sector undertakings.
A major glitch of allotting land at just half of the existing price has been surfaced in Butibori Industrial area in Nagpur where the land was sold at Rs 520 per sq meter instead of revised price of Rs 1150 per sq meter. Butibori MIDC reportedly got the communication of revised prices well 104 days late. And till that time the damage was already done, the report suggested. The CAG report has specifically pointed out problems in industrial areas in Chief Minister Devendra Fandavis’s hometown Nagpur, saying transparency and fairness in allotment of land and its subsequent follow-up could not be established due to non-maintenance of basic records by the regional office.
The CAG scrutinized the issue in six industrial areas where the lease premium rates were revised between April 2013 and March 2015. The report observed that the board, while revising the lease premium rates, did not specify the dates from which such revision in rates would be applicable.
The MIDC was established with the objective of creating infrastructure for rapid and orderly establishment of industries in the state. The corporation revises the lease premium rate for allotment of land from time to time in various industrial estates run by it. Based on the decision of the board, the revised rates are communicated by the corporate officer to its field offices for implementation. The plots are allotted at the prevailing rate on the date of offer letter issued to the applicant.
The report said: “The decisions of the board revising the rates were communicated with a delay ranging from 61 to 104 days by the land section of the corporation to the field offices. At the Regional Offices where allotments of land were made during the intervening period, delay in communication of the revised rates by the corporate office to its field offices resulted in allotment of land at the pre-revised rates and consequential loss of revenue of Rs 21.98 crore to the corporation,” the report observed.
Similarly, in Shirala in Western Maharashtra’s Sangli district, the price had been revised from Rs. 55 per sq.m. to Rs. 320 per sq.m., which was was not implemented for 82 days.
Apart from the land rates, the CAG report blamed the MIDC for slackness in finalising tenders within the validity period, which resulted in consequent re-tendering and extra expenditure of Rs. 1.80 crore, besides delays in commencement and completion of works related to maintenance facilities in industrial estates.
