The deputy commissioner of Jorhat, Roshni A Kakoti has comprised a four-member committee to inquire the ‘anomalies’ by Jorhat Development Authority in an awarding agreement to a private developer to put up on a public bus terminus. Roshni Kakoti accounts for the committee following a dispute that the Jorhat Development Authority (JDA) had ‘Carelessly’ granted a private party to put up residential and commercial buildings on the land measuring more than 14 bighas.
The immensity of the agreement grew bigger because the Speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly and Jorhat MLA Hitendra Nath Goswami has also been intertwined in the giving out as he is a member of the JDA Board.
“The committee led by additional deputy commissioner Biswajit Phukan, and would submit its report within 30 days,” Kakoti said
Kakoti added, “The agreement between JDA and Jain Co Mechanical Private Limited has also been kept in abeyance till the completion of the investigation”
After the RTI activists in Jorhat looked for the arbitration of the Prime Minister and Chief Minister of Assam to stop the project which they asserted had been pass over to a private party without the acceptance of the state government. This whole Controversy has set off then.
The bus terminus at Horuhosai failed to obey its purpose as an Inter-State Bus Terminus was set up in the propinquity and the JDA bus terminus was lying unutilized. It was owned but the Jorhat Development Authority (JDA), and was inaugurated by then Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in 2004.
The RTI activists who are also advocates, Rintu Goswami and Gautam Bora had written letters to the Prime Minister, Chief Minister, and Assembly Speaker requesting the abolition of the project mentioning that the project was against public interest and was being done without genuine acceptance of the government.
Goswami said the 14 bighas, three kathas and 12 lochas of the plot have been apportioned to the JDA bus terminus by the state government, and now the JDA arbitrarily and illegally allocated the whole land to a private builder without acquiring any acceptance of the Directorate of Town and Country Planning. So The plot can’t be used for any motive other than a bus terminus without the approval of the State Government.
Adverting at sections of the accords with the private builder, both Goswami and Bora said out of the residential flats, only 20 percent would be owned by JDA and the rest by the private party and more frighten of the accord was that the builder was allowed to mortgage the land with any bank or financial institution for a loan.
The RTI powerbroker said that they would move the court if the government doesn’t intercede and stop the project. However, JDA chairman Prasanta Jyoti Goswami has repudiated the charges and said the project had been prepared as per government norms and rules. Goswami added residential flats would be set up on three bighas of the total land under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana for economically backward people as per the norms of the scheme.
The JDA chairman said that the 20 percent share of JDA flats would be given on rent while the rest 80 percent would be sold by the private party to people under the PMAY scheme.
Asserting the project to be of public interest, over four bighas plot would be made obtainable for parking public transport vehicles like buses and minibusses and will continue to be under JDA and; JDA’s revenue is anticipated to grow with the implementation of the project and could run smoothly. Goswami said JDA is operating without any financial assistance from the state government.