Gandhinagar: Congress MLA Gyasuddin Shaikh on Tuesday alleged that the BJP-led Gujarat state government favoured Maruti Suzuki by allotting it land at a much cheaper rate than the Indian Coast Guard, which according to Shaikh, was charged three times more than Maruti Suzuki.
During the Question Hour in Gujarat Assembly here, Shaikh, who represents the Dariyapur seat of Ahmedabad district, asked the state government to provide details about non-agricultural land sold to different entities during the last two years in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts.
Shaikh also asked the government to provide prices at which land was sold off by the Gujarat government.
In her written reply, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel provided a table with names of all entities, who were sold land at different rates in these two districts.
As per the table, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd was given two pieces of land at Mandal taluka of Ahmedabad to set up its plant.
According to the table provided by the Gujarat Chief Minister, the first piece of land is of 259 hectares (25.9 lakh square metres) and was sold at a price of Rs 673 per square metre, while the second piece of land admeasuring 30 hectares (3 lakh square metres) was sold at a price of Rs 385 per square metre.
As per the table, 13 other parties were also allotted land in Ahmedabad district for different purposes and price bands.
Similarly, the state government also sold non-agricultural lands to 22 different entities in Gandhinagar district at various price bands.
In Gandhinagar district, the Gujarat government claimed to have sold 2.63 lakh square metres of land for Rs 1,906 per square feet to the Indian Coast Guard, which wants to set up its headquarters on it near Chiloda in Gandhinagar.
"This shows that the Gujarat government favoured Maruti Suzuki by allotting it land a much cheaper rate than the Indian Coast Guard, which secures 1,600 km of our coastline.
Due to such discrimination, the Indian Coast Guard ended up paying three times more than Maruti Suzuki," Shaikh said.
