IT Park

Union information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni on Wednesday hit back at Punjab governor general (retd) S .F. Rodrigues, accusing him of “unnecessary dragging” of her in name into the Chandigarh IT Park row.
Soni said in a statement that Rodrigues’ allegation that he drew her wrath by coming in the way of her business interests were “totally false.”
On Monday, the governor had claimed that Soni had launched an orchestrated campaign against him because he opposed allocation of land for a public school run by the minister and her family in Chandigarh.
“I have consciously restrained myself from making any comment on his statements, since he holds a constitutional post at the pleasure of the President of India. But I find that he has no compunction of what is correct or otherwise and has lost no opportunity in levelling baseless and false accusations,” Soni said in the signed statement.
She added: “The (land allocation) matter continues to remain in court and is sub judice. I am, therefore, surprised at the statement of the governor of Punjab who seems to have spent his five years in office, looking into this matter, while the issue continues in court.”
Soni, however, admitted she had opposed Rodrigues’ proposal of commercialising the city of Chandigarh.
“The governor’s proposal of building multi-storey apartment complexes, dividing and sub-dividing house plots, would have changed the character of this global city. I vehemently opposed this commercialisation,” she said.
The Congress ruled out another probe against Rodrigues.
“Not at all. The ongoing probe will ascertain the truth,” Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said.