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| Carry drive against land grabbing to its logical end | | |
True to his profession, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has carried
forward his tirade against corruption in various spheres. His drive
against encroachment of government lands by the unscrupulous land
grabbers in connivance with the corrupt officials has started bearing
fruit. The State Vigilance Organisation, which has been given free
hand and extra powers to deal with the corrupt elements, including the
land grabbers, has unearthed a big land scan in Jammu, after
conducting search operations and scrutinizing the revenue records of
illegally allotted lands. In the process 219 kanals of government land
allotted illegally to some individuals and then fraudulently sold by
allottees, has been retrieved. The unearthing of this land scam in
Jammu by the State Vigilance Organization, however, is a tip of the
iceberg. According to the statement given earlier by the Chief
Minister himself about 13 lakh kanals of government land, belonging to
the revenue, forest and evacuee property depaertments has been
encroached upon and stands illegally occupied to various parties, with
the active involvement of the officers in the concerned department. In
the case of unearthing of scam in Jammu involving over 219 kanals of
state land falling in revenue Patwar Halqa Deeli Jammu by manuplating
the revenue records and making fraudulent entries, the Vigilance
sleuths after launching searches in the premises of a former Tehsildar
Jammu, Patvari Halqa Deeli and a broker have laid hands on
incriminating documents. In this murky deal some cultivators of the
land were dispossessed by some influential land grabbers and prime
state land, situated within the municipal limits of Jammu, valuing
crores of rupees, had been allotted by making fraudulent records by
the official of the revenue department, who entered into a criminal
conspiracy with some private persons in the year 2005. While the
action under law against the land grabbers and the corrupt officials
involved in the case is called for, those who have purchased these
lands after paying market price to the land encroachers should not be
punished for no faults of theirs, since it is obvious that they had
purchased these lands in good faith, believing the mutation in the
revenue records in favour of those who had sold these illegally
occupied lands as genuin. This goes to the credit of Chief Minister
Ghulam Nabi Azad that he has launched all out war on the corrupt in
the government in the public life as well as among the unscrupulous
business magnets. To carry this drive to its logical end and to
inspire confidence among the public about Chief Minister's sincerity
and seriousness about the exercise, the drive should not remain
confined to snaring the small fries, but also big sharks should be
caught. It is an open secret that some high officers, some of whom are
closed aides of Chief Minster Ghulam Nabi Azad are in illegal
occupation of forest, revenue and EP lands, which have been
fraudulently allotted to them on throw away prices. These elements
have further encroached upon the government lands to extend their vast
estates. In fact there is the need for accountability and source of
possession of big chunks of land by some influcial persons. A thorough
probe into the matter by thoroughly scrutinizing the revenue records
will reveal the scandalous deals entered into by these elements with
the involvement of some corrupt officers.
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