The state government has allotted a staggering 14,305 acres — equivalent to 5.78 crore square metres — of land in Kutch to billionaire Gautam Adani controlled Adani Group at prices ranging from Re1 to Rs32 per sq mt.

While these allegations have been doing rounds by opposition Congress since a few years now, this is the first time that the government has accepted this by releasing data in answer to a question in the state Assembly on Wednesday.

The information was provided by revenue minister Anandi Patel in reply to a question by Congress MLA from Karjan, Chandu Dabhi.“The Adani Group has been allotted 14,305.49 acre land in Kutch for different companies. The land has been allotted at a price ranging from Re1 per sq mt to Rs32 per sq mt,” the revenue minister said.

The Congress MLA criticised the government for the huge land allocation to Adani Group. He also questioned the minister whether the land was allotted as per the prevailing jantri rates at the time of allotment. However, the minister did not respond to the question.

Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil criticised the government for giving away land to Adani group at throwaway prices, and alleged that deal was riddled with corruption. Later, the state government shot back at Gohil saying that Congress governments in the state had also given huge tracts of land to Adani and other industrial houses.

Government spokespersons Jaynarayan Vyas and Saurabh Patel pointed out that Adani Group had also been given land in Rajasthan and Maharashtra. They questioned Gohil whether this implied that the Congress governments in the two states were also corrupt?

The revenue minister, in her reply, said that approximately 5.78 crore sq mt of land in and around Mundra was allotted for Mundra Special Economic Zone and Mundra Port and SEZ Limited.The reply shows that a large chunk of the land was given to Adani Group at single-digit prices per sq mt.