The fact of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), Garhwal Range having solved 46 out of 59 land fraud complaints reported over the past four months through reconciliation has raised question over whether this is what the SIT is meant for.
Garhwal Range DIG Pushpak Jyoti said that out of 59 complaints related to land frauds being reported from December 9, 2016 to March 22, 2017, 46 had been solved through reconciliation with the SIT officials having arranged meetings of the complainants and the accused.
He added that `7.5 crore had been returned to the complainants aside from 10 bigha lands being returned to them.
Notably, the objective behind formation of SIT is to curb with a heavy hand the growing number of land forgery cases through actions taken against the land mafias.
However, the same SIT being reduced to a forum of reconciliation with hardly any action being taken against the land sharks, out to grab lands of the common people by hook or by crook, seems to be going against the objective with which it was raised, say many observers.
The present style of functioning of the crucial unit of the police forces directly negates what IG Sanjay Kumar Gunjyal said earlier. He is on record, saying that SIT would not play any role in brokering compromises between the land mafias and their victims.
Now, with the regime change, question is being raised whether the SIT would revise its current role of brokering rapprochement involving the land-grabbers and their victims. The question is now all the more relevant with the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat having directed the police officers to take swift action against the persons involved in land fraud cases.