Kapil Dave, TNN Apr 4, 2013, 03.56AM IST
GANDHINAGAR:
Gujarat government has come in for major criticism from the
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India over serious lapses in
its management of public land. In its report tabled in the assembly
on Tuesday, the CAG suggested immediate law and policy corrections to
prevent a loss of hundreds of crores to the public exchequer every
year and rooting out large-scale corruption.
In
its major audit observations in a few select cases, the
CAG pointed
that due to illegal practices of revenue department officials, the
government has lost more than Rs 747 crore in just one year.
Lack
of uniformity and transparency in allotment
The
CAG report clearly says that its scrutiny of land allotment records
during 2006-11 revealed that no orders or instructions were issued by
the revenue department for determining qualifications of allottees or
for inviting applications. Instead, allotments were considered in
respect of only those who applied.
"The
prices were fixed by various committees; the norms prescribed for
fixing the price of land were found to be unrealistic in some cases.
It was also observed that these norms were not adhered to in some
cases. Thus, there was no uniformity in fixing prices of lands
alienated," the report says.
Inadequate
maintenance of records
The
prime audit agency in the country held the revenue department
responsible for not having consolidated data of alienated and
un-alienated land, status of the alienation proposals received from
collectors besides approved, rejected and pending cases.
During
a test check of records in the offices of revenue officials in
2011-12, the CAG found under-assessment of tax and other
irregularities worth Rs 183.40 crore in just 136 cases. It pointed
out that actual receipts from 2007-08 to 2010-11 showed an increasing
trend while it declined in 2011-12 by 17.42% over the previous year.
Short
recovery of occupancy price
The
CAG report has pointed towards undervaluation of government land due
to incorrect computation of market value of land and non-recovery of
additional market value for allotment of grazing land that resulted
in short recovery of occupancy price of Rs 36.49 crore in 29 cases.
The
report says Larsen & Toubro Limited was allotted government land
for the manufacture of super critical steam generators and a forging
shop for the nuclear power plant. The price of the land was fixed by
DLVC instead of SLVC rates, which resulted in revenue losses of Rs
128.71 crore. It also says that allotment of land at concessional
prices to two ineligible trusts resulted in undue benefits to them
and subsequent short recovery of occupancy price by Rs 25.05 crore.
The
CAG report points, "The delay in regularization of encroached
government land coupled with levy of ad-hoc penalty at lesser rates
in the case of Essar Steel Company Ltd. resulted in short recovery of
Rs 238.50 crore."
"Government
land was not utilized for the purpose it was allotted for, and
conditions of allotment were breached in five cases. The departmental
officials either failed to detect the cases or did not take
corrective actions to vacate the land," the report says.
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