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Government must take back National Herald land: state BJP

BJP state unit spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, while addressing a press conference, said the AJL is owned by newspaper National Herald, which has now shut shop.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit on Wednesday demanded that state government should immediately take back the piece of land allotted to the Associated Journal Limited (AJL) in view of the alleged irregularities in allotment and utilisation of the land.

BJP state unit spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, while addressing a press conference, said the AJL is owned by newspaper National Herald, which has now shut shop. He claimed Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi were at the helm of AJL's affairs.

Bhandari said the previous government had allotted 3,479 sqm land in Bandra to AJL for a research centre. He pointed out that instead of a research centre, an 11-storey tower was being built at the spot. He claimed that even though the previous Congress-NCP government had charged a concessional price for the land piece, the money was not paid in time and the amount of interest, to the tune of Rs2.78 crore, was waived off by the previous government.

Bhandari added that the AJL was constructing on more than 80,000 square feet of land and most of the work was commercial in nature. He alleged that the company had violated all terms and conditions and the land piece should now be taken back by the government.

After the media reports about irregularities in land allotment and its use came to the fore, the state government had appointed Gautam Chatterjee committee. On Tuesday, minister Eknath Khadse made it clear that he was yet to receive the Chatterjee committee report in this regard. The revenue department sources, however, informed that the department has received the report and action would be initiated after going through it.

"Now since the report has come, the government should accept it and cancel the allotment of the land," said Bhandari.

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