Cong rakes up ‘land gift’ to maneka NGO

Farmers defending the land transfer to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in village Ullahwas, have launched a counter-offensive against the BJP claiming that it was BJP's coalition government that had gifted four acres of panchayat land to a social organisation free- of-cost for setting up of a veterinary hospital in Sadharana in 1996.

Farmers defending the land transfer to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in village Ullahwas, have launched a counter-offensive against the BJP claiming that it was BJP's coalition government that had gifted four acres of panchayat land to a social organisation free- of-cost for setting up of a veterinary hospital in Sadharana in 1996.

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Jaibir Singh, a resident of Ullahwas and relative of then sarpanch Surinder Prakash who had taken the controversial land deal in 2009, said the Sadharana panchayat had transferred the land to People For Animal, the NGO run by Maneka Gandhi, in 1996. Congress leaders too supported his claim.

“We had transferred the land to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust against R15 lakh per acre annual lease for 33 years that we used for the welfare of the villagers but the BJP-HVP government allowed free-of-cost transfer of land,” Singh said.