??|?? October 28, 2012 ?? 10:08am ??|
HYDERABAD: In yet another reversal of the decisions taken by the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy regime, chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday cancelled the Lepakshi Knowledge Park project planned in 8848 acres in the SEZ at Gorantla and Chilamattur mandals of Anantapur district. The knowledge park, floated by Lepakshi Knowledge Hub Pvt Ltd (LKHP), a Bangalore-based company, is dubbed as the biggest ?land loot? that took place during the YSR regime.
LKHP, which got the land allotted, claimed that it would set up an aerospace & defence cluster, education & innovation hub, logistics & free trade warehousing zone, agro food science & technology park, a heritage wellness village, health & wellness cluster, media & entertainment city and a global village along with a health R&D facility and universities. What surprised many is that LKHP fraudulently shifted the ownership of the land to another company, which is not even an associate, which later pledged the land with various banks and raised huge funds.
Both the then chief minister YSR and the promoter offered everything under the sun to induce the farmers and DKT patta holders to part with their land. The company promised more than a lakh direct jobs and another half lakh indirect jobs. A MoA was signed on December 22, 2008, between APIIC and LKHP to establish a global knowledge hub. Even though four years had elapsed, there has been no progress in the project implementation except the local realtors making a quick buck by touting the Lepakshi project as a great landmark that would change the economy of the region. An official who was associated with the project told STOI that the promoter violated the norms by mortgaging the land and diverted the money to other purposes.
?As per the MoA, the promoter can mortgage the land and raise funds to invest in the project for which the land was allotted. But, in this case, the promoter delegated the rights of the land to another company which is illegal,? he said. According to sources in the industries department, the APIIC, some time back, had investigated the activities of the promoter and found massive irregularities.
Lepakshi land pledged with banks by YSR aide
LKHP had delegated the rights over the land to a company owned by a close associate of YSR who in turn pledged the land with banks to raise funds. The third company reportedly mortgaged 4,397 acres of the land allotted to Lepakshi and raised Rs 790 crore from various banks. ?About Rs 300 crore was raised from Canara Bank by pledging 1,054 acres and Rs 250 crore from Punjab National Bank by mortgaging 756.65 acres. Similarly funds were raised from IL & FS, IDBI Bank, Bank of India, State Bank of Hyderabad and Tata Capital,? the sources said.
Even the CAG also found fault with the land allotment and listed the Lepakshi knowledge Park as one of the major land irregularities committed by the YSR government. This is the fourth cancellation of YSR?s dream projects by Kiran Kumar Reddy, the other three being Brahamani Steels, Bayyaram mines and RAK Economic City.
Streamlining the land allocation to the various ventures, the state government last month announced its land allotment policy. One of the clauses in the policy empowers the government to review the progress of the project and take back the land if the land was not used for the intended purpose. According to the sources, the chief minister invoked this provision to cancel the Lepakshi Knowledge Park project. APIIC, which signed the MoA with LKHP, has been instructed by the CM to initiate the process to recover the entire land from the company.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Kiran-Kumar-Reddy-govt-nixes-Knowledge-Park-project/articleshow/16985594.cms
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