Chandigarh, October 26
In what may turn out to be one of the biggest ever land scams in this region, about 2,870 acres of land located just on the boundary of Chandigarh has been usurped by influential people reportedly in connivance with some revenue officials of Punjab.

The prime land is currently valued in the open market at nearly Rs 2,500 crore and is considered a “financial goldmine” in real estate circles. Located in the foothills of the Shivaliks, it is just a couple of kilometres away from Chandigarh in Karoran village and the adjoining areas of the newly carved Mohali District.

As per revenue record, the land was originally categorised as “shamlat deh khewat (common village land). Punjab Government revenue officials, in an unprecedented manner, firstly changed the category to “shamlat deh jur khewat”. Just a day after doing so, the land was divided amongst a few landowners of Karoran village through a mutation allowed by the Tehsildar.

A retired Kanungo, who is referred to as a “commission” in the mutation papers, is a witness to all this. No records exist to indicate how he was appointed as a “commission”.

Once the division of land was allowed, the shares of these landowners were soon purchased by the high and mighty of the region.

Last week, the controversial land was included in the nagar panchayat. This means the land, which should have been rightly owned by the panchayat, can now become the property of individuals.

Officials pointed out that common village lands are vested with the Panchayats under the Punjab Village Common Lands Regulation Act, 1961, and no ownership can be changed without meeting the criteria laid down in the Act.

Revenue experts, from whom this reporter got the relevant papers examined, said this entire process was faulty.

Sources point out that facts relating to these 2,870 acres were probably never told to the top brass of the state. A large part of this common land was a watershed of now dried-up rivulets or had partial farming practice. These acquired some value only after land area in Chandigarh got saturated about a decade ago hence necessitating the need for housing.

The scam and its magnitude remained hidden in dusty archives of the revenue records for more than 11 years. The clandestine change of land carried out during the regime of former Chief Minister Beant Singh. This closely-guarded secret between a few revenue officials and a few influential purchasers, would have gone unnoticed but for an ongoing probe by the country’s premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is at present investigating the Forest Hill Golf Resort case.

Top sources in the government confirmed to The Tribune that during the course of its ongoing investigations the CBI had recently found that nearly 300 acres of the said 2,870 acres of controversial land was now under the Forest Hill Golf Resort. The remaining 2,500 acres is owned by others, including politicians, ministers, policemen and bureaucrats.

The CBI, in its initial findings, has detected that the land was wrongly transferred from common-use village land to individual ownership and from thereon purchased by the management of the resort. The findings are expected to be a part of the final report on the Forest Hill Golf Resort case that the CBI is to submit by the end of this year, confirmed officials. The agency will, however, not dwell upon the larger chunk of land that is 2,500 acres, as it does not come under the ambit of investigations into the Forest Hill Resort case.

Meanwhile, investigations launched by The Tribune in the past few days revealed that the entire chunk of 2,870 acres was transferred in one go vide mutation number 6286 on June 27, 1995. A day later, the Tehsildar carried out the crucial part of scam. He allowed transfer of the land and divided it in the name of individual owners vide mutation number 6287. This means the legality of transfer of the entire chunk of 2,870 acres is under scanner and not just the 300 acres owned by the Forest Hill Golf Resort, which happens to be just one of the many beneficiaries of the unprecedented act of the revenue officials. The chances of these powerful people having being behind the actual act of transferring the land in 1995 cannot be ruled out, said officials. Some of the land sale registries occurred within months from the time revenue officials allotted the common land to individual owners.

(To be concluded)