Every day is a new day with lots of news coming from all corners about how the common man is deprived of, because of high handed plundering by the rulers. A recent land grab unearthed by the prominent Telugu daily Eenadu states that during the rule of the Late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy as the Chief Minister, one of his confidants at the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation had used his free hand to allot a one acre plot at throw away price to a petrol bunk company.

The said land which housed a petrol bunk had also enough place to construct a star hotel. The ideal location was in the proximity to IT Parks and EMAAR Township. The most sought after land was allotted to Teja Enterprises (later known as Bhuviteja). The applicant had neither specified the plan or details about the proposed construction, but due to the grace of an officer in the APIIC, got it allotted in record time (just two days) on October 24, 2005.

Facts stranger than Fiction: In allotment:

•    In fact the news paper reported that at the time of allotment the said company had not even applied for registration. Though the land was allotted on October 24 2005, the company was registered only on 9th November 2005 and later changed the name in January 14th the next year.

•    Neither did the company get any allotment from any of the petroleum companies to start the bunk, at the time of allotment.

•    The allotment was done at a very low price. The whole plot was allotted for just Rs. 1.5Cr (but estimates say that the plot would cost approximately cost Rs. 20 Cr for any of us).

•    The estimated land that was utilized for the bunk was about 800 Sq yards and the balance 3,400 Sq Yards were utilized for a ten-storey star hotel.

Now the question is was it allotted for a bunk or a hotel and that too at what rate. In case any of us apply, for any small issue with the government, it takes half of our life to get things allotted. And very difficult or rather impossible to eat the full cake without making offerings and in some cases just left with crumbs. If that is the case how this deal has been done is a question asked by the complaints that have reached the Vigilance departments and the Lokayuktha’s.