Cash-strapped HUDA to pay more than 1,000 crore to landowners

Gurugram: The fact that the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is facing a financial crisis is known to all. A report by the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) only validates this officially.

Gurugram, considered as HUDA's cash cow would have been instrumental in improving the financial situation of the public body, but a host of imprudent financial steps have also led to worsening of the situation.

According to a report of CAG, HUDA has to pay a sum of Rs 10,774 crore to the landowners, and to pay the money it has taken a loan of Rs 11,000 crore.

The CAG in its report has stated that more than Rs 1,000 crore, as dues, is pending from the land allotted to various liquor vending units.

Dues are also pending from the land allotted to numerous commercial sites that also include the CNG and many petrol pump stations. Along with these factors, the slacking in property rates has also not helped the cause of HUDA. For long, HUDA has been at the forefront of acquiring land from the villagers and developed into residential and industrial townships. The significance and profitability of the public agency have been most felt in Gurugram, where the realty sector saw an exponential rise for a long period of time.

The situation changed when the farmers, whose land were acquired, realized that owing to the valuation of the land the cost of which had escalated, they were not compensated well by the public agencies. This resulted in most of the farmers approaching the court, where they were able to get the verdict in their favour. To pay these farmers, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) had to pay the increased rates that amounted to lakhs.

The adverse impact of debt-ridden HUDA has been felt in Dwarka- Expressway also, where it took more than 12 years to compensate the village residents whose land was acquired for the building the new sectors.