Tuesday, 15 June 2021 | Kamlesh Srivastava | Ayodhya
Facing political heat over the alleged scam in purchase of land for the construction of Ram temple and adjoining areas, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Ayodhya claimed that agreement for the said land was signed in 2017 much before the Supreme Court allowed the construction of temple in Ayodhya.
The general secretary of the Trust, Champat Rai, said in a statement here on Monday that the trust has bought the land at a price much less than the market rate.
He said the trust is buying land to expand the region around Ram Lalla temple. “To make travel accessible we needed land around the temple complex. We bought land which had houses and temples. The trust has decided to settle these people elsewhere. In view of this, the trust bought Gata number 243, 244 and 246 (area 12,080 square metres) so that the displaced could be settled there,” he said.
The SP leader Pawan Pandey and AAP MP Sanjay Singh had alleged major scam in the purchase of that land saying it was first bought at Rs 2 crore and within 10 minutes the same land was sold at Rs 18.50 crore.
Rai said that the initial agreement for the said land was done in the year 2017 for Rs 2.16 crore of which Rs 92 lakh was paid in advance. “It is clear that the price of the land was evaluated at the 2017 rate when the price of the land was low. After the verdict of Ram Janmabhoomi on November 9, 2019, the price of the land increased almost 10 times, so the price of the said land increased almost 9 times when the trust bought it,” Rai told reporters.
Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi, says that the allegations leveled by the Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party leaders are politically motivated.
Ayodhy DM Anuj Kumar Jha said that the land purchased by Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in Bagh Bijaisi locality is at a prime location. The main gate of Ayodhya railway station is to be built there and thus soon it will become the biggest commercial hub,” he said.
