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Global city plan on land for SEZ

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Supreme Court asks Haryana to apprise it about land allocated to RIL

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government on Tuesday said it will start a detailed probe into the now-scrapped Reliance Haryana SEZ project . Spread over two districts, Gurgaon and Jhajjar, the project was approved in 2005 by the Congress government led by chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The SEZ had run into protests by farmers over the transfer of land to the Mukesh Ambani-headed Reliance Industries’ joint venture with the state-run company.The controversial issue surfaced during the question hour of the ongoing budget session of the Haryana assembly. BJP MLA Ravinder Machroli asked industries minister Captain Abhimanyu about the current status of the SEZ project and the employment it has generated. Replying to the question, Captain Abhimanyu said there was no transparency in the creation of the SEZ.Those sitting on the treasury benches launched a scathing attack on Congress while discussing the sequence of events, which led to the sanction and the signing of MoU between Reliance Ventures Ltd — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) — and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure limited (HSIIDC), which had created a special purpose vehicle, to set up the SEZ on 25,000 acres across Gurgaon and Jhajjar.“A study of records suggests that no competitive bid was invited for the project. An MoU was signed and a lot of amendments were made in rules after a series of meetings held at the higher level. Our government is committed to transparency and we assure that each and every aspect is looked into and the wrongdoers are not spared,” Abhimanyu said.If the then government wanted, it could have penalized RIL for walking out of its contract and returning the land transferred through HSIIDC. “It would have fetched Rs 50 crore for the state exchequer. So far as rest of the land is concerned, since there are litigations pending in various courts, we would not be able to comment,” he said.Reliance had to start its projects by March 2011. As the deadline lapsed, it sought a 4-year extension for the project from the Union commerce ministry, which notifies SEZs and allows them tax concessions to promote exports and generate jobs. The project had also got delayed initially as RIL could not acquire contiguous land to meet the minimum holding requirements of the commerce ministry. However, the government granted Reliance Haryana SEZ a year’s extension. After this, Reliance walked out of JV with Haryana government and the process to return land began.