One day before the Model Code of Conduct came into force, on March 9, the Centre reportedly allotted 2 acres of land on the prime location of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, Delhi, to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Per a report by Nidhi Sharma in the Economic Times, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) issued a notification for changing land use of 2.189 acres at DDU Marg from ‘group housing’ to ‘public and semi-public facilities’ on March 9, a day before the Election Commission announced the dates for the general election.
The plot, 3B DDU Marg, is reportedly located across the party’s plush headquarters, 6A DDU Marg. With the notification, the government had cleared the application filed by the party in 2015. BJP will reportedly pay Rs 2.08 crore for the land.
Per the existing land allotment rules, passed by the previous UPA government, a party that has 101-200 MPs is entitled to 2 acres of land and party with more than 200 MPs is entitled to 4. The rules, reported ET, are silent on the course of action when a party’s number of MPs drop in a subsequent election.
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The report added that following the 2014 election, the saffron party was entitled to 4 acres, out of which, 2 acres had already been allocated. For the additional 2 acres, the land and development office (L&DO) chose the 3B DDU Marg property. The final allocation was 6% more –2.2 acres instead of 1.98 acres — than the approved limit, the report said.
The timing of the allocation process is interesting, according to the documents accessed by ET.
In February 2015, the land allotment screening committee under the union housing ministry recommended the allotment and the L&DO allotted a 2-acre plot to the BJP. In July 2016, the party wrote to L&DO saying, “physical possession of complete plot is not possible due to ground level problems” and requested a change in dimensions, reported ET.
In September 2016, the screening committee reportedly met again and the Union Urban Development Minister reportedly invoked discretionary powers as the land exceeded the permissible limit of 4 acres.
In December 2018, the proposal to change the land use was tabled. Chaired by LG Anil Baijal, a meeting of the DDA subsequently cleared the proposal on February 21 and 25. The draft notification was put in public domain on March 9, ET reported.
On March 10, the EC declared the dates for the Lok Sabha Polls, and the Model Code of Conduct came into force.