Finance Ministry defends Shaktikanta Das on allegations of land allocation at below market rates

The Ministry of Finance came out in support of Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs, Shaktikanta Das on an article that alleges of the allocation of land by him to a company at a much lower prices than the market rate.

In a post on its Facebook page the spokesperson of the Finance Ministry said that the allegation is totally false and mischievous. It added that the rates of the land that are allotted to setting-up industries are fixed by the State Cabinet and the orders are then issued by the Secretary (Industries).

The article published by Pgurus.com alleges that in July 2007 Das during his stint in Tamil Nadu cadre as Industrial Secretary approved 100 acres of land to a US firm called Sanmina SCI Corporation at rates which were prevalent in 1970. It says it followed up on Subramaniam Swamy's allegations to 

The report further said that the land was allotted in Oragadam Industrial Park, 50 kilometres south of Chennai for Electronic Accessories manufacture at Rs 15.5 lakh ($23,000) per acre when the price was not less than Rs 4 crore ($595,000) per acre.

It also alleges that the firm which had promised 4,000 jobs never materialised and even says that the labour was under paid at salaries of around 3-4 dollars a day or 50 cents an hour.

The report ends stating that within a year of signing of the controversial deal, “Das landed in Finance Ministry under Chidambaram in 2008.”