CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday told the state Assembly that land registries done from 2010-2016 will be probed to check for any violation of norms.
The chief minister said this during the discussion on opposition’s calling attention motion regarding alleged irregularities in the registries done under the BJP-JJP government.
The Congress was ruling the state till 2014, when the BJP came to power.
Registries done between 2010 and 2016 across the state will be investigated to check violation of norms under Section 7A of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, Khattar told the Haryana Assembly here.
The Opposition Congress said as per the government’s own admission, close to 60,000 registration deeds have been found in violation of rules in an ongoing probe for the period between April 2017 and August 2021 and the government was stalling their demand for a CBI probe.
Khattar told the Opposition members that it was his government which has initiated action against officials for the violation of the rules when some cases came to light in Gurugram nearly two years ago.
Khattar and his deputy Dushyant Chautala said whenever any case of corruption has come up before the present state government, it took cognisance of it.
“Similarly, in the case of irregularities in land registries, the government took cognisance and got the records of the tehsils checked,” said Khattar pointing to the Opposition benches, who alleged that the state government was trying to “save the guilty and push the mammoth registration scam under the carpet”.
Khattar said the violations in land registries done between 2010 and 2016 in 140 tehsils and sub-tehsils will be investigated and the entire process will be taken forward at a fast pace.
“Strict action will be taken against anyone found involved in this entire matter. If required, the records up to the year 2004 will also be investigated,” he said.
Congress Kiran Choudhary alleged, “The registration scam in Haryana is the mother of all scams, whereby the sale and purchase of immovable properties in the controlled areas of municipalities of state had been allowed by the land revenue department officials without obtaining requisite NoC from Town and Country Planning Department officials violating provisions of the notification under Section 7-A of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975.” INLD senior leader Abhay Chautala alleged that even in Khattar’s home district Karnal irregularities have come to fore.
This scam could not have been possible without government patronage, he alleged.
Khattar said on June 13, 2020, some complaints of irregularities were received from Gurugram and the financial commissioner, divisional commissioner and deputy commissioners were asked to take cognisance of it and share the complete data of violations with the state government.
As a result of this, the data of about 60,000 registries has come to the notice of the government, the CM said.
The officials concerned were asked to file their replies within 15 days, said Khattar.
He said earlier the registration work was done manually but his government introduced an online system in September 2020.
Source: Press Trust of India