Fuel station blocking underpass ‘has no lease’

GURUGRAM: Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), formerly known as Huda, has gone to the Supreme Court against Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd over the shifting of the petrol pump that is stalling the completion of IFFCO Chowk underpass project.

According to the HSVP officials, Sukhjit Mann — the owner of the petrol pump — had filed a petition in the SC in 2014 against the State of Haryana seeking extension of the lease handed out to the fuel station that expired in 2012. In the affidavit submitted in the first week of January, HSVP said that they were planning to allot a new site to the petrol pump owner through the draw of lots.

The next hearing is scheduled to take place on January 23 and TOI has learnt that Mann has hired Salman Khurshid to represent her case.

A senior HSVP official, quoting the affidavit, said, “HSVP had leased 693 square metre of land to Karan Petroleum for 15 years. Several additional filing points had been put up at the retail outlet. In 2012, the lease expired and was not extended.”

“With the non-shifting of the petrol pump a major national infrastructure project (IFFCO Chowk underpass) has been kept on hold, which not only amounts to waste of money and resources but also results in huge loss of state exchequer,” states the affidavit.

However, Mann told TOI that in 2014 she paid HSVP Rs 78 lakh to extend the lease for 99 years. In 2017, HSVP extended the lease for 15 years.

“HSVP officials had earlier shown me two sites — near Ambience Mall and another at Sector 42. Give me one of them and we will shift. I don’t want any other plot,” Mann said when asked about her objection in accepting an alternative plot.