An arrival view of Sahara India's sprawling Amby Valley Lake City from atop the historic Koriagad fort.

MUMBAI, May 16: In a surprise move, the Maharashtra government has ordered immediate suspension of work on Sahara India's controversial 5,000 acre private hill-lake city project in the Sahyadri ranges near Lonavla in Pune district.

The order was shot off on Thursday by the Urban Development Ministry which discovered that Sahara India had not honoured stringent conditions laid down in the letter of intent given to the company for a project that is seen as the most controversial deal of the government post-Enron.

K Nalinakshan, principal secretary urban development, told ENS: ``With the letter of intent we had given Sahara India a dozen conditions without fulfilling which they could not start the work. The main condition was environment clearance form the Centre and NOC from the urban development ministry and some other local authorities. But we found that without satisfying any of these conditions, Sahara started development and construction work. So, we have ordered them to stop it forthwith.''

Significantly, the timing of the move coincides with speculation in Pune about a file containing some sensitive documents reaching Anna Hazare on the controversial project. He has not yet mentioned Sahara in the endless list of instances he has been citing during the past several months. No information could be gathered from Sahara's Lonavla office, despite repeated attempts.

But sources sources close to Hazare confirmed that the file has reached the crusader who currently is observing maun vrata. Yet a faint nod when this reporter confronted him with a direct question was more than eloquent.

Also significant was a press note released by Anna on late Thursday evening stating that he would ``soon submit to the State Governor and the Prime Minister freshly discovered instances of high level corruption''.

Only last month, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, under an opposition attack for okaying the project, had told the Legislative Assembly he would withdraw the permission if there was any wrong-doing. The same day, sources in Mantralaya said, he convened a meeting of top level officers and asked them to keep a keen eye on the project as it was the first time that allegations of bribe (Rs 100 crore, according to Congress member R R Patil), were being made in relation to a department that was under the chief minister. Yet, a few days later, when there were reports of Sahara having started the work with any clearance, a top-level team was sent to Lonavala for a spot check. The team submitted its report confirming the land development and construction work having been started by Sahara on Monday. On Tuesday Joshi gave his sanction to order stoppage of work and onThursday, the order was served on Sahara.A report presented to State Revenue Minister states that Sahara India has not purchased even a single square inch of land in Lonavla region. The 1049.34 hectares land in six villages has been bought by 66 individuals from U, says the district collectorate report. Interestingly, an official advertisement of the project by the company speaks of terrain measuring 5000 acres.

Further, the district collectorate also has launched investigations into over a hundread Sahara-related land deals to discern the agriculturist status of the buyers, which is essential under section 257 of Maharashtra Land Revenue Rules. The sub-divisional officer in-charge of Maval block already has revoked permissions in two cases.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.