By Ashok Wankhade
Track2Realty Exclusive-I
At a time when investigations into the “mother of all scams” the 2G spectrum allocation scam allegedly by former telecom minister A Raja and owners of some telecom firms are in full swing and the Apex Court is monitoring the investigations, it has come to light that the Rural Development Ministry has been awarding projects to a major infrastructure and finance company, IL&FS which had invested in the scam tainted DB Realty.
The IL&FS, in which a number of government agencies have a major stake had invested in the Shahid Balwa’s DB Realty and that too before the realty firm had come out with its IPO last year. Balwa was arrested in February and is in judicial custody along with Raja and his other associates for allegedly causing the national exchequer a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore while doling out telecom licences in 2008 on the first-come-first-serve basis.
Balwa, country’s youngest billionaire, had promoted Swan Telecom and after getting the telecom licence had sold 45 per cent stake to UAE-based Etisalat for $900 million in 2009. The telecom firm promoted by him is now known as Etisalat-DB. There are also allegations against him that over Rs. 200 crore was transferred by DB group to a media company owned by DMK party members.
Despite the knowledge of the infrastructure and finance company IL&FS having stake in the scam tainted DB Realty, the Rural Development Ministry has awarded it with three projects under the provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) and that too against the norms of the scheme. Reports suggest that these projects have been allocated to the infrastructure and finance company as a result of the alleged bias of a senior official of the Rural Development Ministry, whose son is working with the company.
