Dead ‘paid’ for acquired land, DC orders inquiry

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, August 16

An alleged scam worth crores of rupees during the acquisition of land for the construction of national highway (NH-54) from Amritsar to Bathinda in Zira sub-division has come to the fore.

Sources said a notification regarding land acquisition for the construction of NH-15 (now NH-54) was issued on August 11, 2014, as per the provisions of the National Highway Act, 1956, following which the process to acquire land for the 62-km-long stretch passing through more than 20 villages in Zira was initiated. Around Rs 200 crore was disbursed.

The Rs 2,200-crore project was to be completed by September, but a lot of work is still pending.

The sources said several discrepancies like payment to the deceased land owners, erroneous calculations, change in type of land from agriculture to commercial, variation in payment to owners with same share in landholding, besides fake transactions allegedly took place in the entire process.

They said in at least three cases in Khadoor village, the land owners — Boor Singh, Fhuman Singh and Ghuman Singh — had died long before the compensation was awarded, but the money was allegedly shown deposited in their accounts and later withdrawn.

In the same village, Sadha Singh and Dalsher Singh, who had 50 per cent share in notified land were paid Rs 4.69 lakh whereas Sukhchain Singh who had one-fourth share was also paid the same amount. Uttam Singh, who owned the rest of the one-fourth share, was paid Rs 30.22 lakh.

In another case, Inderjit Singh was paid Rs 6.56 lakh for one-third share of land whereas Gurbachan Singh was paid Rs 22.82 lakh for his one-tenth share. At serial no. 10/11 of the “A” roll prepared by CALA, both owners had same share.

At serial no. 15, Harbans Singh, who owned 11 canal, was paid Rs 71.47 lakh for a portion of his land which actually cost Rs 58.47 lakh. At serial no. 20, the “khewat” had 30 marlas land costing Rs 7.98 lakh, but the payment of Rs 17.20 lakh was made.

Malkit Singh, member, panchayat Khadoor village, who got the information through RTI, said these discrepancies had taken place in his village, but if an inquiry is conducted in all areas where the land was acquired, the scam would be much bigger than expected.

Ramvir, Deputy Commissioner, said ADC (G) Vineet Kumar would conduct investigations into the charges. He said Kumar had been told to verify all facts regarding land acquisition.