The tea garden land deal made by the State Government for execution of the planned smart city project in Dehradun is the biggest land scam so far in Uttarakhand as it amounts to the Government purchasing its own land from a private enterprise. BJP leader Ravindra Jugran made this allegation while addressing the media at the Press Club here on Monday.
Accusing the Government of deceit, Jugran said, “The Congress-led State Government has conspired to purchase the tea garden Government land under the pretext of developing the planned Dehradun smart city project. The land ownership case going on for 40 years between the Doon Tea Company and State Government was disposed of in the court of the additional district magistrate in favour of the company.”
He further said that the ADM court’s pronouncement against the State Government was made under pressure from the State itself and the State Government did not even challenge this decision in the higher court. It is as if the tea garden land ownership case-which had been continuing since 1971 was resolved fantastically during the last two months in favour of the company. The State Government did not even challenge this decision in the commissioner’s court and revenue board after which the higher court could have been approached.
“The main subject of the case was that leaving the land owned by the company, the remaining tea-garden land was to be acquired and mutated into government land under the land Ceiling Act. As per the decisions taken after inquiries conducted from the district sub divisional officer level to the commissioner level so far, the additional tea garden land was to be acquired and mutated into Government land under the land Ceiling Act but this was not done,” he added.
The BJP leader further alleged that the State had no intention to execute the Dehradun smart city project which was being exploited as grounds for purchasing the tea garden land. He said, “The functioning of State Government is marred by rampant corruption as evidenced in the tea-garden deal purportedly for the smart city project. Not having acquired its quota of tea garden land under the ceiling act, the State Government is actually paying the company to ‘purchase’ land which is supposed to be under Government ownership. With the expose of this major tea-garden land scam, the CM should tender his resignation on moral grounds,.”