State government seems to have forgotten it’s prime properties which they still owned in Uttrakhand since division.
This sensational fact has been revealed through an application filed under Right to Information Act (RTI). Interestingly, the connivance of the government officials is also suspected as despite of matter has been brought to their knowledge, they do nothing to get the properties back or had taken legal action. It was only after the matter came in the court of Information Commissioner, Hafiz Usman, and he summoned a report in this regard, the officers woke from their slumber and get the property released.
Now Usman, wrote a letter to the chief secretary, Alok Ranjan, asking to immediately issued a circular to all the government department so that they would check whether any property owned by them comes under the jurisdiction of Uttrakhand and if so they must ensure that the same has been not grab by other. Usman, who confirmed of the above, also claimed to have directed district magistrates of Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Philibhit etc, whose boundary touches Uttrakhand to make similar exercise as according to him, many illegal colonies came up on the border areas on which the officials took no cognizance claiming that the land belongs to Uttrakhand.
According to Usman, one social activist filed an appeal in his court through which he informed that 70 bighas of prime land, belonging to Irrigation Department, in Buddupur area of Gurukul Narson in Roorkee, has been grabbed and that the officials concerned were doing nothing. Information Commissioner said that the complainant also informed that he filed a RTI with the senior officers of the Irrigation Department seeking a reply regarding the status of the above land through RTI but his efforts went in vein as no one responded to it.
Usman said that finding the matter very serious and also that the negligence of officers is causing great loss to the state government, he summoned all the officers concerned and sought full detail. He also summoned the officials of the thesil in Roorkee in this regard. He said that he was stunned when the officers of Uttrakhand, appraised him that in their record, 70 bighas of land belongs to Irrigation Department of UP and that one Dharampal had grabbed it and was doing farming there.
Information Commissioner claimed that later on his direction, the Uttrakhand officials not just get the above land vacated from Dharampal, but appraised him that the land was handed over back to the officers of Irrigation Department. Usman claimed that besides the above, a land belonging to Public Works Department (PWD) at prime location in Dehradun, costing over Rs 20 crore, has been also grabbed. He said that this matter also came up through RTI before him and now he was in touch with the authorities there and had directed them to get the property vacated and hand it back to PWD. He also claimed to have informed the officers of PWD as well as the state government to take the matter with their counterparts in Uttrakhand so that ownership to prime properties could be restored.