Land allotments in Gujarat must be probed by SIT: Congress

New Delhi: Keeping up the pressure over the Gujarat land row, Congress today demanded setting up of a Supreme Court-monitored SIT to go into all allotments of government land during the tenure of Narendra Modi as the state Chief Minister.

"The Special Investigative Team monitored by the Supreme Court should cover all the allotments and grants of public land when Anandiben Patel was the Revenue Minister and Modi was the Chief Minister," party's senior spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters in Delhi.

He alleged that there was plunder of public land and forest land during Modi's tenure as Chief Minister as they were given for a "pittance" to "corporate cronies" and others without following due procedure.

In 2010, Gujarat government is believed to have allotted 250 acres of land next to Gir Lion Sanctuary to Wildwoods Resorts and Realties Pvt Ltd (WWRRPL)for setting up a resort which was allotted at a price of Rs 15 per square metre or Rs 60,000 per acre.

Asking Modi to "come clean" on the issue, Sharma sought to know from him whether he was aware of "clear conflict of interest" of the then Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel while allocating government land near Gir Lion Sanctuary to the company which allegedly has close business links with her daughter Anar Patel.

"Was this allocation based on a Cabinet decision and endorsed by (then) Chief Minister (Modi) and whether conflict of interest, if any, was disclosed?" asked Sharma.

In her second Facebook post in two days, Anar Patel admitted that owner of the company which purportedly got the land was her "business partner" in another firm but she had nothing to do with WWRRPL.

"I, Anar Patel, am neither a director nor a share holder in WWRRPL, Anil Infraplus and Parshvatexchem. I don't have anything with WWRRPL, anybody can check with government authority," she said.

"Indeed, Daksheshbhai (Dakshesh Shah, who owns WWRRPL along with Amol Shripal Seth of Anil Infraplus) is my business partner but that doesn't mean that I am there in all his companies. He is a self-made businessman and is in business since last 22 years," she wrote.

"We started a company named "Anar Projects" seven years back with business interest in retails and services. We never took any favour from any government organisation, we strictly followed all rules and regulations in all manners," she said.