Reiterating the demand raised by the Pradesh Congress Committee last year, a delegation headed by PCC president Kishore Upadhyay met Governor Krishan Kant Paul here on Wednesday and submitted a memorandum demanding verification of the status of all Government lands allotted since 1990 to various organisations for different purposes. The PCC chief stressed on the need to make the identities of the institutions and individuals allotted Government land from 1990 onward public.
Upadhyay states in the memorandum, “In the past I had elicited the focus of the former Chief Minister on this issue and had asked that the names of all institutions and persons allocated government land or Gram Samaj land since 1990 should be made public. I had written a letter to him requesting action and as far as I am aware, on February 23 2016, he had written to the chief secretary ordering him to take necessary action regarding this issue. Though I had requested that information regarding such allocated lands be made public but a long time has passed since then and no action has been taken so far,” said the PCC chief.
listing details of some of the land allocations made in different areas, he pointed at the possibility of many such cases across the State wherein sizable area of Government or Gram Samaj land had been allocated at disproportionate rates.
Upadhyay stated, “There might also be cases in the State wherein Government of Gram Samaj land allocated has not been used for the stated intended purpose. It has also been observed that some of such Government lands allocated have been misappropriated. As is known, majority of the land area in Uttarakhand is under forest cover with there being a paucity of land available for execution of development works. Considering this, I request that information regarding all the government land allocated since 1990 for different purposes be made available in the public domain. The allocation should be cancelled in case of such allocated land which is found to have been used for other than the stated intended purpose.”
It is pertinent to mention here that last year in December, the PCC chief had written to the then chief minister Harish Rawat eliciting focus on the allocated lands and requesting necessary action. Upadhyay had then told the media that he had written to the then chief minister considering the allegations of anomalies related to land that were being leveled at the Government.