With the current ruckus over ex-chief minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, allegedly engaging in money-laundering and fraud by allotting a plot of land at unreasonably low prices to Associated Journals Limited (AJL), you may be wondering how prevalent these practises are, and why these scams appear to come to light at politically convenient times.
Chief ministers and governments have routinely used the discretionary land quota powers at their disposal to offer favours or derive benefits. But these cases are also the result of regular political machinery; a political see-saw. Ruling parties leave no stone unturned in implicating opposition leaders in some scam or another, but when power changes hands, many of these cases are buried, and the complainant, in turn, often becomes the accused in another scam.
Here’s a list of Chief Ministers, ministers, and governments who were caught using their discretionary land allotment quotas to favour private companies and trusts, for personal benefit.