September
3, 2013 08:30 IST
It is not only Haryana's whistle-blower IAS officer Ashok Khemka who has raised the alarm about widespread misappropriation of panchayat lands in the State by VIPs but also the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which expressed a similar concern on the issue, even as the Haryana government consistently dismissed it as 'a non-issue'.
When
Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka apprised the State government about
Robert Vadra’s allegedly irregular land deals late last year, he
had also raised the issue of large-scale misappropriation of
panchayat lands by bureaucrats and VIPs. The Haryana government has
consistently brushed aside both issues on the ground that “there is
nothing in them that merits an enquiry.”
It
now turns out that days after Mr. Khemka reiterated this in his
100-page submission to the government on May 21, in which he gave
details of some key villages where there is rampant misuse of rules
to corner panchayat lands, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered
an inquiry into land deals in one of the villages identified by him.
The matter relates to Kalesar in Yamunagar district where evidence
provided by Mr. Khemka to the government suggested that industrial
houses and senior bureaucrats were misappropriating prime forested
panchayat land for farmhouses in this scenic area. The land is
adjoining the famous Kalesar wildlife sanctuary.
In
an interview to The Hindu on August 27, Haryana Chief Minister
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, while replying to a question about
misappropriation of panchayat lands, said that the committee
appointed by his government had enquired into everything and found no
wrongdoing. He further said, “Everything has been clarified by our
committee. Mr. Khemka is making an issue out of a non-issue.”
This,
when the High Court, acting on a petition by the Kalesar gram
panchayat on May 30, had directed the Deputy Commissioner,
Yamunanagar, to enquire into all deals in his area where shamlat deh
(village common lands) have been transferred to people without
rights, title or interest and initiate criminal or civil proceedings
against the offenders. The gram panchayat had informed the court
about an agreement to sell 15 acres of land belonging to the
panchayat by two persons, for which a civil suit was filed to execute
the sale deed.
The
suit was rejected by the civil judge in Yamunagar but in 2009 was
upheld by the additional district judge, even though he had recorded
that the land belonged to the panchayat who was not a party in the
suit. The High Court, while setting aside the order of the lower
court, noted: “It is rather surprising that private parties
executed an agreement to sell, filed a civil suit and the additional
judge decreed the suit.” It further notes, “The agreement to sell
and the suit are a fraud on the Village Common Lands Act 1961 and the
gram panchayat.” The court also observed that many other similar
sale deeds had been executed in the area and wondered how the
Registrar of documents had permitted the deeds on village common
lands belonging to gram panchayats.
In
his submission to the government on Kalesar, Mr. Khemka had pointed
out that a common modus operandi was adopted to transfer the
possessory rights on panchayat lands without authorisation. Pointing
out one such case, he had said, “A particularly shocking case was
that of a senior IAS officer retired in the rank of additional chief
secretary who is now re-employed as chairman of a regulatory body. He
is reported to have constructed a building near the Kalesar rest
house on panchayat land in the name of his nephew.” This matter and
other cases of unauthorised transfer of panchayat lands were brought
to the notice of the Revenue department by Mr. Khemka in October, but
his notes says that “the Revenue department maintained a
discomfortingly unholy silence.”
Significantly,
one of the officers who was tasked with enquiring into Mr. Khemka’s
allegations on the Vadra and panchayat land scams was Revenue
Secretary Krishan Mohan.
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