HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh calls for transparency in disposal of surplus land by government
10 Jun 2011
Aiming to bring about a measure of transparency to the disposal of surplus land with the government and related agencies, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh has suggested the e-auction route which would leave little space for 'discretion and arbitrary dealing'.
Parekh was addressing the shareholders of the company.
He added that often in the absence of a transparent mechanism for sale of land, several government entities including the railways, defence and public sector units were hesitant to dispose land.
"An e-auction mechanism will leave no space for discretion and arbitrary dealings. This will allow entities to unlock value from land as well as pave the way for a more transparent system of acquiring land," Parekh wrote to HDFC's shareholders in the annual report.
According to industry watchers, where prime land was being sold, through the regular tender process or an open auction process, bidders were often threatened by the underworld.
They say in such circumstances chances of the seller not getting the right price would be high.
Further if the same land was then to be re-sold to genuine bidders, the underworld make money which would have otherwise gone to the original seller.
According to an industry source an e-auction could open up the piece of land to the whole world to bid and still remain anonymous.
The recent e-auction of coal by Coal India could serve as an example for reducing the influence of the local mafia in buying coal through auction.
The auction also yielded an extra revenue of Rs2,500 crore which would have gone to the mafia.
