The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted searches at several premises connected with Mohinder Singh, a former IAS officer and the former CEO of Noida Authority. He is directly involved in the Rs 9000 crore land scam, which took place during the Mayawati government, where the land allotments are alleged to have been used for personal benefits. In the operations carried out in Chandigarh, Noida, and Delhi, the police forces managed to seize Rs 1 crore in cash and diamonds worth Rs 12 crore, besides gold worth Rs 7 crore.
The land scam is based on the infamous 10% policy of the Noida authority for the allocation of the land, and Singh is alleged to have helped many big real estate companies, including Amrapali and Supertech.
This scheme was alleged to have enabled developers to buy the land at throwaway prices, thus resulting in a huge loss to the state coffers. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has pointed out that the Noida Authority committed massive fraud in the period between 2005 and 2018 and provided evidence of a clear collusion between officials and builders, which cost the government tens of thousands of crores.
The CAG report revealed that many plots were sold without following a proper bidding system, and in many cases the developers were favoured by the arbitrary decisions of the authority. The report also indicated that about 80% of commercial plot allotments during this period were secured by just three firms: the major competitors of this company are Wave Group, 3C Group, and Logix Group. These companies had a large amount of outstanding receivables, but they never suffered any consequences of the Noida Authority.
While the investigations go on, the ED is also looking at other domestic and international properties associated with Singh. The effects of this scandal have led to questions arising on the government within these institutions and the requirement of increased measures in order to reduce corruption among the officials involved in such processes.
