The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the Vigilance Commissioner, Telangana Vigilance Commission, to probe failure of Tourism department authorities to collect rental amounts and arrears of nearly ₹234.69 crores from different private parties.
A bench of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy passed the order after hearing a PIL petition filed by Congress leader Bakka Judson seeking to declare inaction of officials over recovery of the rentals and arrears from the private agencies as arbitrary and illegal. The petitioner said the money was not recovered by the authorities due to extraneous consideration.
Mr. Judson, in his plea, requested the HC to instruct the authorities to initiate steps for collection of ₹234.69 crore under Revenue Recovery Act. He wanted the government to file a status report on the land allotted to private parties and the action taken against them for default of paying the money.
According to the petitioner, the Tourism department (Youth Advancement, Tourism and Culture) facilitated private sector investment for development of tourism projects under Public Private partnership mode. Mr. Judson claimed that a separate Government Order (GO) no. 84 was issued for this on August 14, 1988. However, this GO was not available in public domain, he stated in the petition.
Eventually, the government awarded 13 projects to private parties on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis under public private partnership mode. According to the petitioner, the government audit report stated that eight private agencies owed ₹234.69 crore government as part of rentals and arrears. They defaulted but the officials did not initiate any action against them.
The petitioner said M/s Ocean Park Multitech private limited (Snow World), M/s Hyderabad Trade Expo Private Limited (Expotel), M/s Jubilee Hill Resorts and Hotels Limited (Daspalla hotel), M/s Jubilee Hall Convention Centre (Daspalla Hotel Annexe), M/s Jalavihar Entertainment Private Limited, M/s Secunderabad Golf Course, M/s Prasad Media Corporation Limited (IMAX) and Pantaloon Retail (Old Gandhi Medical College) are the private parties which owed money to the government.
