Himachal Pradesh power corp paid Rs 15 lakh for fake houses, 7 booked

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, February 18

The Vigilance Department has registered an FIR against seven persons, including three retired engineers of the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (HPPCL), for allegedly providing fake compensation during land acquisition for the construction of 100 MW Sainj Hydro Power Project in 2007-08. Three owners of acquired land and a private engineer have also been booked.

Sources said landowners Radhey Shyam and his sons Gaurav Kapoor and Gunjan Kapoor allegedly pocketed extra compensation of Rs 15 lakh for showing two houses on their land which never existed. They had hired engineer BD Gupta, who had prepared the estimate.

Three engineers, including a manager and a deputy manager of the HPPCL, all now retired, allegedly assisted the owners. An FIR in the case, which was being investigated by the Vigilance for long, has been registered at Vigilance police station in Kullu.

Kullu DSP Vigilance Ajay Kumar said a thorough inquiry was conducted during which ample evidence was collected. The FIR had been registered after getting the relevant approval, he said, adding further investigations were underway.

The sources said when landowners came to know about acquisition, some of them built temporary shacks to seek compensation for the houses as well. However, the HPPCL had already mapped the acquired land and taken its aerial photographs. It denied many claims by comparing these with photographs on record. However with the surfacing of this case, questions are being raised over the entire exercise.

During the project’s inauguration on September 12, 2017, the then CM Virbhadra Singh had stated that 216 landowners were paid Rs 1.66 crore and 20 project affected families were given Rs 1.35 crore for rehabilitation and relief by HPPCL.