News: CAG report fallout: Role of senior officials of Noida authority comes under scrutiny-21-12-2021
Based on the CAG report, which has pointed out large-scale irregularities, collusion to favour realtors, and a failure of governance at all levels, the role of current and past employees in the main wings of the Noida Authority are particularly relevant in this exercise, beginning with the plot allotment committee (PAC).
NOIDA: : The state government has sought the names of Noida Authority officials responsible for extending undue favours to land allottees over the 13-year period that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) scrutinised in its first comprehensive performance assessment of the UP’s frontline development agency. Based on the CAG report, which has pointed out large-scale irregularities, collusion to favour realtors, and a failure of governance at all levels, the role of current and past employees in the main wings of the Noida Authority are particularly relevant in this exercise, beginning with the plot allotment committee (PAC).
It is believed that the allotment committee received office orders and notifications on a regular basis. On some file notings, it was noticed that members of the committee, while holding responsible positions in the group housing, planning and finance divisions, dealt with allotment-related files of certain entities under various schemes before those came to the committee for deliberations.
The CAG reviewed the functioning of the Noida Authority between 2005 and 2018. It estimated losses amounting to Rs 52,000 crore to the exchequer.
Also a subject of inquiry are the names of officers in the planning division who were responsible for extending undue benefits to group housing allottees by offering higher floor area ratio (FAR) and ground coverage without seeking proportionate incentives.
A Noida Authority officer said broadly, the CAG team has sought an examination of roles of the land department (land acquisition-related anomalies), finance department (for allowing dues to build up), plot allotment committee (under various heads such as group housing, commercial, institutional and residential) and the planning division (proposal and approval of Sport City and arbitrary allotment to applicants).
Officials said the Noida Authority has forwarded the names of CEOs and additional CEOs in the 2009-2010 period when most group housing plots were awarded and deviations to dole out undue advantages to the builders were observed by the CAG, during the introduction of the farmhouse scheme, at the time of approval to the Sports City concept when four consortiums bagged the plots, and also those responsible for issuing reminder notices related to payments without followup measures.
Noida CEO Ritu Maheshwari said that the Authority is looking into the report’s findings. “We will take a decision on the issues highlighted by the CAG team accordingly,” said Maheshwari.
This is the second time since August that the functioning of the Noida Authority has come under intense scrutiny. A government special investigation team recently probed the role of officials in clearing the revised building plans of Supertech’s twin towers at Emerald Court, which the Supreme Court in August ordered demolished while tearing into the Noida Authority as “a corrupt body”. Much of the probe overlapped with this period that also came under scrutiny in the CAG audit.
