Rajiv Gandhi Trust land in Amethi to be returned to UPSIDC

Amethi, August 26

A revenue court has reversed the allegedly questionable sale of a piece of land belonging to Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.

The order came two days after Union Minister Smriti Irani called the sale illegal and accused the Gandhi family of "land-grabbing".

Gauriganj sub-divisional magistrate Vandita Srivastava, who passed the order, said the land, which is in Kauhar village in Uttar Pradesh, belonged to UPSIDC and was illegally transferred to the trust.

In Congress’s defence, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi said the Trust "had explained itself very, very clearly".

"It runs a self-help group system that is the largest in Uttar Pradesh. They have created SHGs for over 1.4 million women. They have transformed lives of millions and millions of women there. So Mrs Irani should go into the details of what work they have done and exactly what they are doing before she says anything," he told reporters in Jammu.

Counsel Uma Shanker Pandey, who had been represented the farmers, said the regional manager of UPSIDC had written a letter to Amethi district magistrate stating the 65-acre land was leased to the company, Samrat Bicycle — which has been accused of selling it to the Trust — in 1983.

The land, Pandey said, had been acquired from farmers and leased to the company for 90 years for setting up a manufacturing plant.

But the company had to be closed down later. In order to repay their mounted debts, they sold it by claiming the land was theirs by drawing up forged deeds and land records.

Congress issued a detailed rejoinder Countering HRD Minister Smriti Irani's accusations of “land-grabbing” in which it said that the land was purchased at an auction.— TNS/ PTI