“State largesse may not be distributed arbitrarily or discriminately. We may not concur in the proposal,” the ministry of law and justice has stated in its comments regarding land allotment. These comments have been received by the ministry of home affairs (MHA), which had sent a draft cabinet note to the ministry of law and justice for opinion.
A detailed reply, containing these comments, was submitted to the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday by assistant solicitor general of India Chetan Mittal on behalf of the MHA. Taking it on record, the HC has asked the Chandigarh administration to send its comments on the opinion to the MHA within two weeks.
The HC has also directed the Centre to take a final decision expeditiously after receiving comments from the Chandigarh administration and inform the court by September 13.
The opinion of the Central government, opposing land for housing scheme, has come as a rude shock to thousands of employees. These employees had filed a petition in the high court, seeking directions for allotment of land under the scheme launched in 2008.The UT administration had offered 61.5 acres to the housing board for construction of dwelling units to accommodate 3,930 employees under the self-financing scheme. Permission from the MHA is required to allot the land.