Panipat: Firm blacklisted for property survey scam given clean chit

Mukesh Tandon

Advertisement

Panipat, May 12

Yashi Company, the private company which was blacklisted in September last year, has now been given a clean chit.

‘Step taken To shield higher-ups’

The complainant in the scam, PP Kapoor, has alleged that to save 12 IAS officers, 90 ULB officials and Yashi Company, the state government has given clean chit to the company

The firm conducted property survey in the state, was blacklisted and the contract was cancelled by the state government in September last year. A complaint was filed with Lokayukta Haryana.

This was revealed in the ULB Department’s Chief Vigilance Officer’s report submitted to Lokayukta Haryana on May 6. The matter is listed for July 16 before Lokayukta Justice Hari Pal Verma.

PP Kapoor, an RTI activist, had filed a complaint against the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) Department to Justice Hari Pal Verma about an alleged scam in property ID survey conducted by the Yashi Company, a Jaipur-based firm on July 16, 2023.

Following the complaint, the government had blacklisted the firm on September 12.

The complainant alleged that to save 12 IAS officers, 90 ULB officials and Yashi Company, the state government has given a clean chit to the company.

Kapoor said the Lokayukta had sought an investigation report from the Principal Secretary, ULB Department, after the investigation was conducted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

The Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO), ULB, submitted his report to Lokayukta Haryana on May 6 in which he has given clean chit to all government officials and Yashi Company while in his own report, the CVO admitted that officials of the ULB headquarters and municipalities failed to provide the records of physical verification, Kapoor alleged.

Due to mismatches in property data gathered by Yashi Company, as many as 8,02,480 property owners raised 18.74 lakh objections on the property ID/NDC portal of the ULB Department within 15 months from November 16, 2022 to March 21, 2024. This means 53,523 property owners were raising approximately 1.25 lakh objections monthly, he alleged.

Kapoor further said the department has cancelled 2.92 lakh objections. As many as 90,217 objections are pending with the applicants and 24,047 are pending. As per the report, Jaipur-based Yashi Company had conducted a survey of 42.7 lakh properties in 88 cities in the state of which 21.35 lakh properties are vacant plots, under-construction properties or locked properties but the payment for these was also made to the company.

The government has made a total payment of Rs 62.63 crore to the company.