Chandigarh, November 8
The Punjab Government may not initiate any immediate action against Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Partap Singh Bajwa, or his family members, as it might cause “collateral damage” to several other politicians and bureaucrats, who are known to be close to top government functionaries.

Sources maintain though an inquiry into the land deals by Partap Singh Bajwa, his brother and sister-in-law in Nada, Salamatpur and Bharonjian villages of Mohali is being conducted by the Deputy Commissioner, Mohali, no official report has been submitted to the state government so far.

Top officials, however, say even after the inquiry report is submitted, they cannot single out and take action against Bajwa and his kin.

“There is enough to show that several other VIPs, politicians and their kin, bureaucrats and top police officials are in illegal possession of panchayat land on the periphery of Chandigarh. The two interim reports submitted by the Justice Kuldip Singh Tribunal (constituted in May 2012 to probe land-grab cases) mention the names of a serving DGP (Sumedh Singh Saini), a retired Director General of Police (Paramdip Singh), son of a former Punjab Governor (Sonam Kumar, son of BKN Chhibber), and kin of former Union Minister in the UPA government (Chetan Singla and others related to MP Pawan Bansal), among others. The names of PPCC president’s brother and sister-in-law also figure in one of the reports, but we cannot single them out and initiate action for the sale of this particular piece of shamlat land, while leaving out other cases of panchayat land grab,” said a senior official.

Though Partap Singh Bajwa’s name does not figure in the reports submitted by the Justice Kuldip Singh Tribunal, he has been also accused of buying shamlat land in Bharonjian village, after undervaluing the property and thus evading stamp duty. Bajwa has denied these allegations and said he was unaware of the dispute on the title of the land when he bought that.

“The Mohali Deputy Commissioner has been asked to probe if the land in question was indeed shamlat and whether it was covered under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA). These facts would determine if the sale deed was undervalued. However, since there are other cases, which have already been probed into by the tribunal, where land grab has been done and is still in the process of being effected, we will have to initiate action in all such cases,” said the official.

It was almost impossible to audit and initiate action in all cases of land grab (panchayat land) as it would mean probing into almost 70,000 sale deed registries. Of these, 35,000 had been effected in only Karoran village of Mohali, where 12,000 acres of shamlat land had exchanged hands several times over, he added.

“Though the high court had sought a report from the state government on the action taken on the findings of the first interim report submitted by the tribunal, no such report has been sought on the second report submitted by the tribunal in which the land deal by Bajwa’s brother finds mention.”

• It may cause ‘collateral damage’ to several other politicians & bureaucrats
• The Mohali DC is probing into such deals, but no report has been submitted to the state government so far
• Even after the inquiry report is submitted, the authorities cannot single out and take action against Partap Singh Bajwa (pic) and his kin

The two interim reports submitted by the Justice Kuldip Singh Tribunal (constituted in May 2012 to probe land-grab cases) mention the names of a serving DGP (Sumedh Singh Saini), a retired Director General of Police (Paramdip Singh), son of a former Punjab Governor (Sonam Kumar, son of BKN Chhibber), and kin of former Union Minister in the UPA government (Chetan Singla and others related to MP Pawan Bansal), among others