Officials told the High Court that the plots under A,B and C categories (according to sizes) could be auctioned as the circle rates have gone up.

Y K Bahl, Additional Chief Executive Officer of Noida Authority, said, “The circle rates have been increased three times (since 2004, when the draw was held). The plots should now be auctioned at present rates rather than older rates of the draw.”

While applicants of the scheme await a final outcome, the Authority officials are doing their best to save face. Recent investigations into the Authority’s records showed that out of the 1,250 plots included in the draw, 79 were not owned by the Authority.

While officials are tight-lipped about it, sources say many others are under the scanner. “They do not know how the 1,250 plots were included in the list. The figures suggest that lesser number of plots were owned by the authority,” a Noida Authority official said, on the condition of anonymity.

The 628 plots in these categories were those which were among the disputed ones because of “allotment to high profile people”.

A CBI inquiry was ordered into the scam, and the Mayawati government had recently withdrawn the application filed by the government under Mulayam Singh Yadav. The CBI had raided the Noida Authority office in Sector-6 on January 11.

The Apex court had issued orders for the CBI enquiry into the scam in November 2007, and final directions are pending.

New housing scheme in Greater Noida
The Greater Noida Authority is planning to go ahead with allotment of 5,000 houses next week, officials said. Authority officials say this scheme comes as a part of the plan to introduce more housing societies. The houses will be built on an area of 100 to 120 sq metre and will cost Rs 25-30 lakh each, officials said.

Farmers gherao Greater Noida Authority office
Greater Noida: Protesting against low compensation rates for acquired land in Greater Noida and Noida, thousands of farmers gheraoed the Greater Noida authority office on Thursday.
Led by the Greater Noida Kisan Sangharsh Manch and the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, farmers demanded that the compensation rates for the land acquired since 2005 be increased to Rs 20 lakh per beegha, instead of the recently introduced rate of Rs 8 lakh per beegha.
Leading the farmers, ex-MLA from Noida, Nawab Singh Nagar, said, “We are demanding a rate that is fair and in accordance with the increased prices of land in the past three years.”
The police had to make special arrangements to handle the protesters. Roads to the Authority office were sealed during the protest.
There was, however, no untoward incident, police officials said.