Probe indicts revenue officials in land scam

Probe indicts revenue officials in land scam

Ferozepur : Several revenue officials, including a naib tehsildar, three kanungos and four patwaris, and some sarpanches have been indicted in an inquiry conducted by Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Vineet Kumar into the NH-15 scam which allegedly caused loss to the tune of crores of rupees to the state exchequer.
A retired SDM-rank official and his staff members have also been reportedly found guilty.
In his report, the ADC has brought out several startling discrepancies during the acquisition of land for the construction of National Highway-15 from Amritsar to Bathinda in Zira sub-division.
These include payment to deceased land owners, erroneous calculation of compensation, change in type of land from agricultural to commercial, variation in payment to owners with the same share in landholding and payment to farmers whose land had already been acquired.
Sources said at Khadoor village, land owners were paid Rs 2.45 crore for the land which had already been acquired as the previous mutation (number 1,635) had not been executed.
Similarly at Sihapari village, farmers were paid Rs 1.45 crore extra by showing the land as commercial instead of agricultural. The inquiry also revealed that the land owners were given payments without checking their identity proofs due to which payment was “released” to several dead persons.

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