Chandigarh, April 22
Six months after the Robert Vadra-DLF controversy rocked Haryana, its reverberations linger on: Land mutation work has come to a virtual standstill in a few districts. This has a direct bearing on the property entitlement in the state.

Sources said mutation proceedings are on in 49 estates across the state where mutations are either being sanctioned "as per provisions" or are held up since the controversy. Some of the cases involve issuing a notification conferring powers of revenue officers upon assistant consolidation officers and dealing with court case on consolidation in Gurgaon's Shikohpur village.

After the then Director General, Consolidation and Holdings (DGCH) Ashok Khemka passed a "quasi-judicial order" cancelling the mutation, the government is silent on a final decision on his order following a report by a three-member committee asked look into Khemka's objections.

DGCH YS Khyaliya said the sanction process was on as per rules, but he did not explain the procedure being followed. A few Deputy Commissioners confirmed that no mutation was being sanctioned in their districts after the controversy.

In the face of administrative inertia, the fate of many consolidation proceedings, spanning three decades, hangs in balance in Shikohpur. The immediate task before the government is do deal with the ongoing court case involving consolidation proceedings in the village since the three-member report says the proceedings cannot go on with the development plan for the estate already in place and hardly any land left for consolidation. The court had given the government two years to get over with the consolidation. The deadline ends in September this year. Besides, fixing a definite time-frame within which the proceedings in estates under consolidation should be concluded could help avoid Shikohpur-like repeats.

As for the deal, sources say the sale deed between Vadra and DLF is not under challenge. All the then DGCH did was to cancel the mutation on grounds that it was sanctioned by the ACO, not specifically empowered for the same though his exercising this power "uninterrupted and without any objection" from any quarters finds support even from the orders of the court, quoted in the three-member report.

The two parties, government sources maintain, will need to go to the consolidation officer and seek a fresh sanction. Also, the powers of the revenue officers are yet to be conferred upon an official of any rank.

The committee is awaiting Khemka's reply to its report. The officer says he will take a month to do so.