Sounding tough on corruption, Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday appealed to people and MlAs of the State, to inform the Government or him about any benami land deals they come across or have information and assured of appropriate action.
“lot of benami transactions have taken place and State machinery wants to act on it but do not have much information. I appeal to the people and MlAs that if they have any information or knowledge about any such deals, please write to me or the Revenue Minister or the department. I assure you that appropriate legal action will be taken,” said Singh during his concluding address on the Budget debate.
“These benami land deals have taken place in the State in a very organised way and wherever we had information, legal action has been taken and land has been vested with the State Government but still we do not have much information,” said the Chief Minister.
Pledging not to spare the accused, Virbhadra Singh said that his Government needs support of people to check this menace in the State. He also assured of bringing strong lokayukta Bill in the State to check corruption in Government offices during ongoing Budget session.
"We are dealing with corruption with strong hands and number of steps has been taken by the State Government," said the Chief Minister mentioning the toll free number to be launched to check corrupt practices and call center to help in delivery of public services.
He admitted that there was something wrong in the system for authentication of Below Poverty line (BPl) list. "Our Government had held special session of Gram Sabha in April to authenticate the BPl lists and eradicate the bogus names of BPl families.
"I am still getting complaints that the deserving families have not been included in BPl lists while undeserving families have been included. I feel that something has gone wrong somewhere and Government is now planning to strengthen the methodology to ensure fair deal to the deserving," said the Chief Minister.