The committee probing the Kamal Vihar government land encroachment case at Dunda, Sejbahar and Boriyakala villages has completed its investigation.
A committee was formed by the Housing and Environment Department under the chairmanship of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) , Raipur Development Authority (RDA) Alex Paul Menon has submitted its report to the State government, according to an official press release issued here on Thursday.
As per the findings and the recommendations made in the report, the Housing and Environment Department , while keeping in view the charges against builder Sanjay Bajpai has directed the Director, City and Village Investment Directorate to file a First Information Report (FIR) against the builder.
Principal Secretary, Housing and Environment N Baijendra Kumar stated that action is being taken as per rules on the officials and the employees found involved in the land encroachment case.
He said that the State government has taken the matter seriously and had subsequently, the Housing and Environment Department has suspended Joint Director, City and Village Investment Directorate Zahid Ali with immediate effect.
In the suspension order it had been mentioned that Ali during his tenure had committed irregularities while offering development permission while violating the provisions of Chhattisgarh Civil Service Discipline Rule 1965 (Rule-3) .
The probe on encroachment of the Kamal Vihar scheme was held under the chairmanship of CEO, RDA with Section Officer (Revenue), Tehsildar, Raipur, Joint Director, City and Village Investment Directorate , Regional Office, Raipur and Deputy Registrar, District Registration Office, Raipur as members of the committee.
The two-point reference of the probe was —1. To find out how much of the government land had been encroached upon by carrying out limitation exercise of the government land and the land surrounding the government land. To also investigate whether the encroachers had got the layout plan of the land also endorsed 2. The role of the departmental officers in endorsing the layout plan.
The probe committee had informed the Government that the said builder had encroached 9.714 hectares of allotted government land at Dunda, Sejbahar and Boriyakala villages and carried out more than 250 plottings while selling them as his own land to the people while cheating them.
It had been stated in the report that Sanjay Bajpai was offered endorsement for eight layouts in the said villages. It was also found during investigation that the layout for the government land and the nullah were also endorsed while most of the land endorsed in the development permission were not possessed by the builder.
In Boriyakala, the approved development permission number 33/10, only 3.749 hectares is owned by Sanjay Bajpai out of 20.582 hectares. The permission was acquired by the builder by calling the government and private land of others as his own by forgery of documents of B-1, Khasra Panch Sala, limitation Report and other general documents, the report stated.
Similarly, registration was acquired from the District Registration Office without any document number with no date mentioned on it. In some of the documents, dates are mentioned but in the remaining pages photo copies of some other documents had been attached.
The report stated that prima facie it was found that registration was acquired using forged documents which is criminal.
The Housing and Environment Department has sent a copy of the probe report to the Revenue Department and the Commercial Tax (Registration) Department for necessary action as per rules.
The report had also stated that the involvement of government officers in the case cannot be ruled out and recommended stern action against those found guilty in the case.
It was stated in the report that officer Zahid Ali of the City and Village Investment Department had deliberately offered land development permission to the builder and also endorsed the layout of the builder on secured agricultural land in the master plan.
The Housing and Environment Department has directed the Director of City and Village Investment Directorate to immediately terminate the issued development permission on the government land.
The Department has also directed that the encroached land at Dunda village be freed from the illegal encroachment and thereafter hand it over to the management of the Raipur Municipal Corporation. Similarly, the Department directed to get the encroached land at Sejbahar and Boriyalaka and hand it over to District Collector, Raipur.