Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 5: In the much-talked about Chatta Sunjwan land scam, the State Government has appointed Regional Director, Settlement and Survey as Inquiry Officer to fix the responsibility and identify the officers and officials who have tampered the revenue records of Sunjwan village. Moreover, the Gove-rnment has detected deficiencies in the report submitted by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) South vis-à-vis alienation of land measuring 724 kanals in village Sunjwan by a builder and asked the Divisional Commissioner to examine three vital issues within a period of two weeks.
The General Administration Department vide Order No.1083-GAD of 2014 dated October 20, 2014 appointed the then Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Shantmanu as Inquiry Officer for conducting enquiry with regard to the encroachment of Government land at village Chatta-Sunjwan in the outskirts of Jammu city.
In his report submitted vide communication No.601/ RA/Enquiry/1745 dated March 13, 2015 to the General Administration Department, the then Divisional Commis-sioner observed: “Khasra No.1442 which is actually a State land has not been transferred in accordance with the rules. Inspite of being State land, it has been put to sale by apparent tampering with the record and laterally inserting under the category of private land. After that Fards and mutations No.225-J and 312-J of the same have been prepared/issued and attested by the then revenue officials concerned”.
He further observed, “since it appears prima-facie that tampering has been done in revenue record, a detailed investigation is required to be conducted to identify the persons responsible for insertion/tampering of the records”.
After going through this report, the Revenue Department asked the Crime Branch Jammu to enquire into the matter and at the same time the Divisional Commissioner vide letter dated September 17, 2015 was asked to furnish the names of the revenue officers and officials, who were working in the area during the period under consideration.
“Though the Divisional Commissioner and Crime Branch were approached vide letters dated March 30, 2016 to share the names of the persons involved in the tampering of the record, no name was shared with the Revenue Department”, Secretary Revenue, Mohammad Afzal said in the report submitted to the State High Court today.
Now, vide Government Order No.44-Rev(S) dated April 1, 2016, Regional Director, Settlement and Survey, R K Shavan has been appointed as Inquiry Officer to fix the responsibility and identify the officers and officials who have tampered the revenue records of village Sunjwan. The Inquiry Officer, who is man of integrity and has conducted several enquiries impartially, has been asked to submit report/findings within a period of 15 days.
In a connected matter which pertains to alienation of land measuring 724 kanals in village Sunjwan to a builder, the Secretary Revenue said that in compliance to the directions of High Court, vide Government Order No.151-Rev(S) dated October 7, 2015, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (South) Jammu was appointed as Inquiry Officer.
The Inquiry Officer submitted the interim report on December 8, 2015 and thereafter final report on February 9, 2016. On analyzing the report of Sub-Divisional Magistrate, the Revenue Department noticed some deficiencies.
“The report is silent regarding the land already held, if any, by the builder elsewhere in the State to arise at the conclusion that the acquired land in Chatta-Sunjwan is within the prescribed ceiling”, Secretary Revenue said, adding “the report is also silent regarding land measuring 12 kanals and 16 marlas comprising Rasta, Chhapri, Talab etc and having allegedly been alienated in contravention of the rules/norms as to whether the patches/parcels of land formed part of the proprietary holdings of the owners or part of common utility”.
Now, in order to come to a definite conclusion that alienation of land measuring 724 kanals situated in village Sunjwan in favour of builder is in contravention of land laws/rules, the Divisional Commissioner Jammu vide letter No.Rev/S/167/2011-part dated April 1, 2016 has been requested to advise on the three key points within two weeks positively.
The Divisional Commissioner has been asked to ascertain the land if any held by the builder in the State at the time of acquiring of the land measuring 724 kanals in village Sunjwan, whether or not the land measuring 12 kanals and 16 marlas having been recorded as pathways, Talab, Chhapri etc form part of main proprietary holdings of the ‘owners’ or otherwise and whether the conversion rate has been applied correctly by the Inquiry Officer while concluding that the land held by the builder is within the prescribed ceiling.
It is pertinent to mention here that Secretary Revenue has submitted two reports to the High Court only after being reprimanded on the last date of hearing when he was directed to place before the Division Bench of the High Court the Action Taken Report or appear in person on next date of hearing.
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