Shanti Bhushan defends land controversy

After the ?CD controversy?, advocates Shanti and Prashant Bhushan have found themselves in a fresh row for receiving land from the Uttar Pradesh government headed by Mayawati.

However, Shanti Bhushan has defended all allegations and said he has taken two farm plots from Maya?s discretionary quota.

?The report in the Indian Express this morning mischievously suggests that Jayant Bhushan and I have taken two farm plots from Mayawati from her discretionary quota,? Shanti Bhushan said in a press statement on Wednesday.

?This is also a part of the malicious campaign by those corrupt, influential people who are afraid that my presence in the drafting committee may result in a tough law against corruption in the form of a Lokpal bill.?

?These are not allotment from any discretionary quota. In January 2009 a scheme was advertised by NOIDA authorities which was described as an open-ended scheme for allotment of farmhouse plots in NOIDA with size of plots 10,000 square meters or above,? he said.

Shanti Bhushan said the rate of allotment was mentioned as 3,100 rupees per square meter plus location charges as applicable. Eligibility criteria and other details were mentioned in the brochure.

A softcopy of the application form for allotment of farmhouse plots was also included in the brochure, he said.

?An amount of Rs 31,00,000 was payable with the application, which was paid along with the application in March 2009. Intimation about reservation of one plot was received on18/1/2010.

?After identification of the plot numbers, a communication was received by NOIDA authorities on 5/1/2011 allotting plot number FH19 in sector 165 measuring 10,000square meters which intimated that the total premium on the plots was 3,67,50,000 and registration money was 31,00,000 and the annual lease rent was to be 9,18,750 per year.?

Shanti Bhushan said: ?So far, possession has not been delivered, nor the lease deal executed. It is only after the plot has been made approachable by construction of roads that possession would be delivered and lease executed.?

?To suggest that the allotment has been obtained from any discretionary quota is totally false and misleading.

? In fact, when we applied in March 2009, and as required attached the project report prepared by an architect and a statement on the means and finance, showing that the entire amount would be available from our bank deposits, we also expected that if the number of applicants was more than the number of plots planned there would be a draw of lots and we were surprised when an intimation in January 2010 was received that without any draw of lots a plot was being offered to us.?

He further said: ?We assumed that probably fewer persons might have applied for the plots than the number of plots planned by the NOIDA authority and therefore all applicants might have been offered plots. This belief was due to the fact that the financial terms were very stringent particularly as in addition to the premium of 3 and a half crores, there was to be an annual rent of more than 9 lacs per year.

?If there has been any arbitrariness in the allotment of the plots, the allotments should be cancelled and we would certainly not challenge the cancellation.?

?It is also to be noted that both myself and my son Jayant Bhushan have been fighting cases against Mayawati in courts and the question of obtaining favours from her or her govt does not arise at all.

?Jayant was fighting the case against the Mayawati government on the Mayawati statues along the Noida bird sanctuary. I, and Prashant Bhushan have been regularly appearing in PILs against Mayawati in the Taj corridor case even as recently as last week. These cases are still continuing,? said Shanti Bhushan.

Media offices in Delhi on Apr 15 had received a compact disc containing a taped conversation between Shanti Bhushan, expelled Samajwadi Party member Amar Singh and party chief Mulayam Singh.

In the tape, Bhushan, a former law minister, allegedly suggested to the two influential politicians that a court judge can be bought out and his son Prashant can get the job done for Rs 4 crores. The contents of the tape are yet to officially verified.

Prashant Bhushan on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking criminal contempt action against Amar Singh for allegedly fabricating the CD from spliced conversations in an attempt to tarnish their reputation.

Amar Singh too filed a police complaint against the Bhushans for implicating him in the row, dubbed as the ?CD controversy?, alleging that it was the lawyer son-and-father who had distributed the audio tape.

On Wednesday, media reports said that Shanti Bhushan, co-chairman of the joint committee formed to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill, had failed to disclose that he had received a large plot of land at extremely low rates from the Mayawati government.

This 10,000 sq.m. of farmland allegedly received at less than a quarter of its market price, raises a conflict of interest question as Bhushan had appeared against the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in the Noida statue park case, media reports said.

The matter was dug out as part of a petition filed in the Allahabad High Court by disgruntled former Additional Solicitor General Vikas Singh, who complained of being allotted ?one of the worst pieces of land?.

Former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, who was part of the campaign that forced the setting up of the Jan Lokpal Bill panel, reacted to the allegations saying that there seemed to be a concerted effort to tarnish the joint panel consisting of five ministers and five civil society representatives.

The Jan Lokpal Bill drafting committee was formed only after the coalition government at the Centre was virtually blackmailed to do so by Gandhian social activist Anna Hazare?s 98-hour long hunger strike demanding a fresh drafting of the bill pushed back for 42 years.