There is disparity in the statements of IAS officials, with regard to Vanpic case. Recommen-dations of the Empowered Committee and the proposal sent by the CCLA with regard to land alienation do not match, say officials.
While the Empowered Committee favoured Vanpic Ports Pvt Ltd, the CCLA in its proposal however, stated that the alienation of lands was in favor of Vanpic Projects, officials said in their statements given to the CBI.
Retired IAS official Deepak Kumar Panwar, who was the chief land acquisition commissioner from April to November 2008, clarified that the collectors sent proposals of alienation of lands in favour of Vanpic Projects Pvt Ltd while the Empowered Committee took a decision to propose alienation in favour of Vanpic Ports Pvt. Ltd.
While accepting that he approved the minutes, Mr Panwar said that he did not clear the draft letter containing the proposal. He added that, in his opinion, the revenue department had misrepresented the matter to the Cabinet with regard to the company in whose favour the lands were alienated.
Principal I&I secretary Sutirtha Bhattacharya pointed out that there was no bidding in the awarding of Vanpic project.
In fact, Rajeshwar Tiwari, who was the revenue secretary at that time, said that if there was a difference in the minutes of the Empowered Commi-ttee meeting and the proposal, further clarifications should have been asked, which did not happen in this case.
As per Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar, who was principal finance secretary, there was no pressure on the finance department with regard to Vanpic.
However, he added that the file wasn’t referred to the PMU cell. The statements also allude to a sense of urgency with which the land acquisitions were made. Mr Panwar said that he, as CCLA, spoke out against the CM fixing a time frame for the collectors to submit acquisition proposals.