Tehsildar of lakhanpur in Jharsuguda Basant Das, who was very active in the illegal land deal of the Deepak Ispat Pvt ltd, was finally transferred to Bheden Tehsil in Bargarh district, much to the chagrin of the local people. The transfer order was handed over to him on Tuesday evening without any substitute against him.
Das had not allowed the representative of Deepak Ispat Pvt ltd’s owners to appear on their behalf in his court in the land deal case. He was the holder of power of attorney.
The real owners of Deepak Ispat Pvt ltd, which illegally purchased more than 500 acres of agricultural land from the farmers under lakhanpur Tehsil in Jharsuguda district, did not appear in the court of the Tehsildar even on the
second date.
However, Tehsildar Das gave them a last opportunity to appear on September 28 failing which he had decided to take appropriate action as per law against the company and its owners.
As per information, Deepak Ispat Pvt ltd in 2008 purchased 521.85 acres of land from six villages such as Badadhara, Badimal, Jhargan, Kuhamunda, Kanaktora and Kanjijharan under lakhanpur tehsil area. All these lands were purchased for Deepak Gupta, the much hyped name behind the Uliburu mining scam in Keonjhar, but through different procedures. The names of Deepaka’s father Haricharan Gupta and his power of attorney holder Om Prakash Singhal of Raygarh (Chhatisgarh) also come to the picture in this transaction.
But out of the above 521.85 acres of land, mutation and change of variety (Kisam) was completed for 221. 56 acres as per information received from the office of the Tehsil of lakhanpur. The Guptas have already acquired Patta of the land in their favour.
“But this was nothing but violation of the 73 (C) of the Odisha land Reformation Act,” alleged the locals, including the Sarpanch and the chairperson of lakhanpur block Nalini Singh.
They also appraised the district administration in this regard clearly highlighting the violation of the Odisha land Reformation (OlR) Act. The district administration also honestly admitted that the law was deliberately violated in the entire process of selling, mutation and finally getting the Patta.
The Guptas have also not procured the valid permission from the State Government to establish any industry here. Hence, the Tehsildar of lakhanpur booked case against the Guptas and the Deepak Ispat Pvt ltd for violation of the provisions of the land Ceiling Act. The Tehsildar has already given two chances to the parties to appear before his court but to no effect. Hence, he has given a final date on September 28.
However, one Om Prakash Singhal of Raigarh (CG) came with a power of attorney from the director of the Deepak Ispat Haricharan Gupta to appear before the court which the Tehsildar rejected pointing that the former can’t appear for the latter in this particular case.