JIT under lens for losing files of lease deeds

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 18

Call it a scam or sheer negligence on part of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) officials, files of lease properties situated at prime locations in Jalandhar have remained missing from the trust records for the past many years.

These mainly include around 6 acres of land of Apeejay School and Apeejay College of Fine Arts and also more than 10 acres land allotted to MGN Public School. More shockingly, despite the fact known to senior officials, no efforts have been made so far to have the records again or to lodge an FIR in the matter.

Such is the callousness of the JIT officials that when asked by The Tribune, JIT CEO Arvind Sharma said efforts were on to locate the files for the past one week. In reality, the JIT has lost the files for the past many years.

However, hinting towards a major scam, RTI activist Ajay Sehgal has alleged that the records were not lost, but had been destroyed intentionally. He has also accused the two institutions of misusing the lease land by violating the building norms prescribed in the lease contract.

“While the MGN was allocated the land to open a college for women, it had opened a school for which it had not sought any permission from the JIT. Also, while the school is charging enormous amount as fee from its students, it has not paid the annual lease amount of Rs 600 for the past many years,” alleged Sehgal.

He also accused the school authorities of violating the agreement by subletting a portion of the lease land to a bank, for which it was charging a heavy monthly rent.

Refuting the charges, MGN Trust chairman Jarnail Singh Paschricha said the lease amount of Rs 600 was paid till 2018. Also, he said that though he had made numerous requests to the trust authorities and also to the former governments to grant him permission to run a school at the site, they did not adhere to it.

He also said that while an offer to buy the land at concessional rates was offered to Apeejay by the then local government, no such offer was made to them by the JIT despite his numerous requests.

As far as sub-letting a portion of the land is concerned, Paschricha said it was given to the bank around 50 years ago and was necessary for the students who wanted to pay their fee and other charges.

On the contrary, the Land of Apeejay School was allocated to Rajeshwari Sangeet Academy in 1964 at Re 1 a year. The aim of the trust was to promote music education. However, on the place a school and a Fine Arts college was opened on the site. The trust had paid Rs 99 as advance rent for 99 years to the JIT at the time of signing lease deed only.

Sehgal has accused Apeejay of violating building norms by occupying more covered area than the one prescribed in the building norms. Arvind Sharma accepted the files to be lost, he said that as the schemes were already transferred to the Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar, it was the job of the civic body to check any building violations, if any.

As the trust has lost the files, it is unable to identify the exact use of the land and the area of land to highlight any building violation. While the Apeejay authorities, including its principal Dr Sucharita Sharma, refused to speak on the issue, the case has once again landed in the Local Government office presently headed by cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Scam suspected  

Hinting towards a major scam, RTI activist Ajay Sehgal has alleged that the records were not lost, but had been destroyed intentionally. He has also accused Apeejay School and Apeejay College of Fine Arts and MGN Public School of misusing the lease land by violating the building norms prescribed in the lease contract