Rampant corruption in registration of properties in Haryana, alleges Opposition

Opposition MLAs in the Haryana Assembly on Thursday left the BJP-JJP coalition government embarrassed by pointing out rampant corruption and alleging the involvement of ‘higher ups’ in the property registration process across the state.

Ellenabad Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Abhay Singh Chautala said, “Revenue department officials admit that they are under tremendous pressure from higher ups to indulge in money making. They also say that refusal to do so could cost them their jobs. I can get affidavits from those who have paid bribes to revenue officials to get their properties registered.”

Chautala was among the 12 opposition legislators who submitted a ‘calling attention notice’ regarding over 30,000 false registries in 32 cities.

Abhay said that on one hand the government says there were no violations and on the other it says Section 7-A of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (HDRUA) Act was not adhered to. The stipulations in Section 7-A of HDRUA Act pertained to grant of a no-objection certificate by the town and country planning department before registration of land in notified urban areas.

Deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala who holds charge of the revenue department defended the government saying there is now zero human interface in the registration process. “We are also conducting a statewide inquiry into the malpractices in the registration of sale deeds. Besides, criminal cases have been registered against errant revenue officials,” he said. An inquiry is being conducted into the violation of Section 7-A of HDRUA Act during registration of sale deeds from April 3, 2017 to December 31, 2019.

Congress MLA from Tosham, Kiran Choudhary said merely taking action against naib tehsildars was not sufficient. “ You will have to find the kingpins of this scam,’’ she said. Congress MLA from Mullana, Varun Chaudhary, said an amendment in Section 7-A of HDRUA Act was made in 2017 to facilitate circumvention of the law. Another Congress MLA Bishan Lal Saini said it was a huge scam. “ The tehsildars and naib tehsildars who execute registration speak in terms of petis (cash boxes),’’ Saini said. The deputy CM, however, maintained that no illegal registration of property was done. “From April 24 to June 30, there was no loss of government revenue due to registration of documents related to immovable properties,” he said.

Source: Read Full Article