Tribune News Service

Panchkula, November 22

The Haryana State Property Dealer’s Welfare Association today questioned the revised e-auction policy of the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) passed earlier this year and accused the Haryana Government of ‘deceiving’ people.

The association, in a press conference, questioned the HSVP’s decision of auctioning plots at a base price, while keeping the reserve price - often much higher than the base price - secret.

“This reserve price is only revealed to the allottee of the plot after he has paid the 10 per cent booking amount to the HSVP. The reserve price often turns out to be higher than the bid price by at least 20 per cent,” said association members.

The members, while citing a few similar examples, said: “A person had purchased a residential plot at a bid of Rs1.35 crore, which was auctioned at a base price of Rs88 lakh in the end of July. After he paid the 10 per cent booking amount, he was informed via an email that the reserve price for the property was Rs1.66 crore. Since then, the matter has been ending with HSVP officials wherein they are neither returning the money nor giving him the possession of the plot.”

“The HSVP is befooling people by giving out lucrative base prices while hiding the actual amount it will charge. The policy further allows the HSVP to give this plot as per its ‘discretion’, which causes discrimination. Whenever there is discrimination, there will be corruption,” they said.

Suresh Aggarwal, president of the association, said: “The HSVP was initially started for no-profit, no-loss and for the betterment of people so that they may come to Haryana and make a home for themselves at a reasonable cost.”

Calling the HSVP policies ‘anti-developmental’, the association members cited it as the main reason behind “people shifting to Mohali from Panchkula”.