Gurgaon, May 25
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is set to chargesheet 14 officials, including five HCS officers, for alleged negligence on their part in taking possession of around 4 acres of land near Islampur village. Several projects pertaining to the development of Sector 48 were delayed as a result of the alleged impropriety.

A complaint was filed by the Gurgaon progressive forum of Sohna road residents who alleged that the irregularity had benefited encroachers.

After months of inquiry, the state vigilance bureau found that HCS officers Yashender Singh, Satbir Singh Lochab, Vatsal Vashisht, Ashima Sangwan and HK Chahal who served as city’s estate officers made no effort to either acquire the land or seek and submit the possession status report of the land to their superiors or the Supreme Court, which had mandated the same.

Vatsal Vashisht had served as Estate Officer twice and lapses had been found in both terms.

The report highlighted how negligence on the part of officers prompted encroachers to raise 25 shops on the land.

HUDA had decided to acquire the land in 2003 and started the proceedings in 2006, the report says. A petition filed against the move in 2008 was turned down by the Supreme Court allowing HUDA to take possession of the land. Thereafter, some villagers set up shops on the land overnight and refused to vacate it.

“The officers concerned should have informed their seniors about the problems being faced regarding encroachment and should have had taken legal action against the encroachers, but they failed to do so. They did not even ask their juniors to submit a report on the project, which is grave negligence of duty.

Thus, proper departmental action should be taken against them,” states the report submitted by the vigilance bureau to HUDA in February. Acting on the report, the Chief Administrator, HUDA, sent directives to Administrator (Gurgaon) Praveen Kumar asking him to draft chargesheets against the guilty officials under Rule 7.

“We have got the orders from Panchkula and are preparing the chargesheets, which will be served next week. The officers will be given stipulated time to respond to it. It is not the sole case but we are struggling with encroachment across the city, which is taking its toll on development,” said Praveen Kumar.

The other officials found guilty are sub-divisional engineering officer Amarjeet Singh Dandi, district town planners BBL Kaushik (retd), Gurmeet Kaur, BK Saini, land acquisition officers KK Gupta, Ram Avtar Gupta and assistant district attorneys Virender Singh and Sandeep Dahiya.

The vigilance department has also pulled up electricity officials for issuing connections to erring shopkeepers without relevant documents. Commercial meters had been installed despite the fact that the land was still under agriculture use.