Senior govt officials named in Amritsar land scam, no action yet

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, July 21

After the names of some senior officers cropped up in the Amritsar land scam case, the government seems to have developed cold feet in taking action as three weeks after the submission of the report, it is still being shuttled from one table to the other in the Department of Rural Development & Panchayats.

Land given at throwaway price

• The issue pertains to Bhagtupura village in Amritsar district, where a prime panchayat land was given to a private coloniser at a throwaway price
• The scam was exposed by Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats Kuldeep Dhaliwal himself last month at a press conference in Amritsar. He set up an inquiry panel thereafter
• The panel’s report found the involvement of a former Director and two Deputy Directors of the department

The issue pertains to Bhagtupura village in Amritsar district, where a prime panchayat land measuring 32 kanal and 16 marla was given to a private coloniser, Alpha International City Colony, at a throwaway price.

The scam was exposed by Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats Kuldeep Dhaliwal himself last month at a press conference in Amritsar.

Thereafter, he constituted a three-member inquiry committee led by Joint Development Commissioner, Rural Development and Panchayats, Amit Kumar.

The committee had submitted the inquiry report to the Additional Chief Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayats, Seema Jain, on July 1.

Jain discussed the report with the minister and forwarded it to the Director of the department, Gurpreet Singh Khaira.

When contacted, Khaira said the probe report was being examined.

However, sources said the reason behind the delay in action was that the role of some senior “hand-picked” officials of the government had been pointed out in the report. The report found the involvement of a former Director, who ignored his senior’s instructions on getting a resolution from the new panchayat. Two Deputy Directors of the department were also allegedly involved — one who virtually gifted nine kanals of land to the coloniser, which caused Rs 51 lakh loss to the department, and the other one who fixed the price of the land on the basis of two-year-old collector rates.

When contacted, the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats said, “The role of two IAS officers and a former minister is under the scanner, so it is beyond our jurisdiction. We will submit the report to the Chief Minister very soon.”

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