??|?? September 4, 2012 ?? 09:02am ??|
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, September 3
An alleged land scandal worth more than Rs 500 crore has come to light in Kot village of the district , highlighting an unholy nexus between government officials and the land mafia.
Though the scam took place in 2008-09, the matter has come to light now in the wake of recent correspondence between the authorities in the matter. No one has been made accountable in the case yet though documentary evidence (in possession of The Tribune) shows that the authorities concerned knew about it.
Revenue officials allegedly illegally transferred more than 2,500 acres of shamlat deh land in the village to private persons. The land was characterised as ?gair mumkin pahaar?, which cannot be used for agriculture or residential purposes. This is a hilly stretch of the Aravalis.
Shamlat deh is a common land in a village. A common pool is carved out by taking away a portion of holdings of landowners at the time of the settlement. The original owners and their descendants lose proprietory rights on shamlat deh.
Officials allegedly tampered with the revenue record to create new illegal ?record of rights? pertaining to the land in favour of the descendants of original owners.
Subsequent to the transfers of ownership rights, the beneficiaries sold a major portion of the land as farmhouses. Signficantly, registeries of the sale and purchase of land was allowed by the revenue authorities.
The then patwari allegedly tampered with the records which were vetted and attested by the kanungo and tehsildar concerned. As per the rules, the final authority to allow changes in the record vests with the District Collector.
Significantly, members of the village panchayat also did not raise any objection when the fraud and subsequent mutations in favour of the beneficiaries was enacted.
In this particular case it is possible that the then District Collector and the Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM) may not have been taken in the loop by lower officials. However, they will have a lot to explain in this case .
Balraj Singh,Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad, who took charge recently, said, ?I am seized of the matter and action will be taken against those found guilty.? When specifically asked as to who would be made accountable in the case, he did not give a direct reply.
The extent of the scam can be ascertained from the fact that the present market value of the land in Kot village is more than Rs 20 lakh per acre.
A new dimension was added to the scam when the Director, Consolidation of Holding, Haryana, issued a controversial notification in December last year to conduct ?consolidation? of 3,184 acres, including the chunk forming gair mumkin pahaar, in Kot. Subsequently, it was annulled by the Director-General, Consolidation of Holding, Haryana, vide his August 23 order.
In the order, the Director-General reasoned, ?The aims and objects of the Consolidation Act were to consolidate landholdings for the prevention of the fragmentation of holdings and for the reservation of land for common purpose of the village.?
The order further said the object of the Consolidation Act would be ?defeated? in case gair mumkin pahaar is included in the scheme of consolidation. It also reads, ?The consolidation would wrongly benefit certain influential outsider-purchasers of gair mumkin pahaar.?
2,500 acres shamlat deh land transferred
Revenue officials allegedly illegally transferred more than 2,500 acres of shamlat deh land in the village to private persons. The land was characterised as ?gair mumkin pahaar?, which cannot be used for agriculture or residential purposes. This is a hilly stretch of the Aravalis.
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