The land allocated by the State Government in Chharba for construction of a Coca Cola bottling plant was originally allocated for Doon University and then transferred to the Industrial Development department.
However, surprisingly the Revenue department does not have the necessary documents pertaining to this at present. This was revealed when Citizens for Green Doon sought photocopies of the three Government orders regarding the transfer of land under the Right to Information Act.
According to CFGD chief coordinator, Dr Nitin Pandey, the Revenue Department had claimed that none of the three Government Orders on basis of which it had allotted land in Chharba village initially to Doon University and subsequently to SIIDCUl were traceable. In a written response to an RTI application filed by CFGD asking for the GO's, the Revenue Department Public Information Officer and section officer Shriprakash Tiwari said that the relevant files could not be traced and efforts were being made to trace them.
Terming this explanation as unacceptable Dr Pandey said this was an obvious attempt to deny information and the group would file an appeal against the reply. He said that it is simply not possible that all the three GOs, which were issued between 2006 and 2013 could all disappear together. He said that it is unimaginable that the land in Chhabra was being allotted on basis of GOs which were untraceable.
RTI Club of Uttarakhand president Dr BP Maithani said that this seems to be a delaying tactic as the reply said the "files could not be traced at the moment". He said that if indeed the files were lost then an FIR should immediately be filed against the official concerned and strict action should be taken.