Probably Roshni scheme may emerge as the biggest land scam in the State known so far. The scam has aroused speculation that many powerful and influential people are involved in it. The State Government averred that nothing wrong was done in implementing the Roshni scheme, which according to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General has observed that the principal objective of the Act was to raise resources for investment in power sector and the Government had estimated resource mobilization of about Rs 25,448 crore by selling 20, 64,972 kanals of State land under unauthorized occupation.
But actually that target was never reached through sale and resale of the State land and this was pointed out by the CAG. A PIL filed with the High Court demanded investigation into the land deal and brought allegations that lot of wrong doing had taken place. The main complaint was that the land was sold to the occupants at a very low rather throw away price and in doing so huge financial losses were imposed on the State exchequer. The court proceeded with legal action and asked for the status paper from the Government. A number of FIRs have been filed in which breach of norms and rules have been mentioned and which naturally had to be sent to the Vigilance Organization for investigation. It came to be known that very influential and politically powerful people were involved in the mega scam of transferring land to people in possession at a throw away price. However, investigation by the Vigilance Organization has not made any headway so far. The Divisional Bench of the State High Court has taken a serious view of delay made by the Vigilance Organization in probing the matter and bringing the actual culprits to book.
Inordinate delay caused by the Vigilance Organization has led the High Court to infer that delay is deliberately caused to give time to the culprits to destroy the evidence. No progress has been made on the FIRs lodged so far. When the counsel for the petitioner raised the issue of involvement of Government functionaries in this case of corruption and scams, the Divisional Bench felt that there could be truth in the charges made and, therefore, issued strict warning to the Government that failing to submit the investigation report by December 17, this year, strict action would be taken. The question is why is not the Vigilance Organization expeditiously pursuing the case and submitting its report to the High Court? Why should the High Court be forced to cast aspersions on the Vigilance Organization?
Everybody is aware of the fact that Roshni scheme has rebounded on the Government because of the callousness and selfishness of bureaucracy and in- ability of the Revenue Minister to check the corrupt practice at the very beginning. In all probability the long time taken by investigation authorities without arriving at any conclusion could be interpreted as an attempt of hushing up the case through bribes and making the CM pronounce its legitimacy. The question is this: the State Government floated a scheme of passing on hundreds of thousands of State land to the occupants even though there was illegal occupation in most of the cases. The State Government hoped to raise over 25 thousand crore rupees from the project and utilise that money for streamlining supply of power in the State. On the face of it there seems much sense in the entire scheme but when practically the land transfer matter took place, deliberately many lacunae were left which could be exploited by interested parties for selfish motives. Actually what was apprehended came out to be true. All that we can say is that the Government has not played its role in this case of scams as it should have. We cannot say whether it was done deliberately or it happened in normal course of things. The Vigilance Organization has to submit the status paper by December 17, after which the court will take legal action. This is a case that will emerge as the litmus test of the Government in doing away with corruption in administration.
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