'Gandhi Trust got land fairly'

The government today defended the allotment of land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in Haryana, saying it was done with the "full consent" of the village panchayat.

The government on Wednesday defended the allotment of land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in Haryana, saying it was done with the "full consent" of the village panchayat.

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"The land allotment had the full consent of the panchayat which had unanimously passed a resolution for leasing it for 33 years," I&B Minister Ambika Soni told reporters outside Parliament House.

The land allotment to the trust in Gurgaon's Ullawas village has kicked off a political row after the Punjab and Haryana High Court summoned all records related to it.

Soni said the eye care centre to be set up in the village would run on "no-profit-no-loss" basis.

The BJP, however, was quick to counter her statement with party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad seeking to know if "everything was so transparent, why did Haryana Government give an undertaking in the High Court to review the entire proceeding". "We think there is a lot of wrongdoing in the land acquisition," he said.

Prasad contended that the land was a gram sabha property which was released after notification of section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act.