‘Revenue officials illegally sold 100 kanals of Pandit families’

Srinagar, May 30: In a new twist to the multi-crore land scam, some Kashmiri pandit families have accused revenue officials of illegally selling nearly hundred kanals of their land in Bemina area. Jitender Koul, son of Gopi Koul of Sebdan Budgam, said as many as 60 kanals of his land under Khasra number 2178 has been sold by the land mafia with the help of concerned revenue officials. “We had lost all the hopes of reclaiming our land as authorities were totally non-cooperative to us. We approached Financial Commissioner Revenue and Crime Branch to look into the matter in 2010 but there was no response from their side,” Koul told Rising Kashmir from Jammu over phone.   

Koul said the news report published in Rising Kashmir on Wednesday about the illegal selling of land in Bemina has come as a ray of hope. They have urged the government to reclaim their land which is under “illegal possession of some highly influential people”.

“We have all the proofs as to how our land was sold to influential people illegally by some revenue officials after forging the actual land records. With the same documentary evidence we approached SSP Crime in 2010 and he termed the issue as ‘dead cow’,” said Koul.

However, sources told Rising Kashmir that a huge chunk of land belonging to Kashmiri pundits, who migrated in early 1990’s, was sold by land mafia after preparing fake documents by concerned revenue officials. Sources did not rule out involvement of some senior revenue officials and said the land brokers as per the initial information have paid lakhs of rupees to them for forging the documents. “The fake documents which are prepared have signatures and seals of some senior revenue officials. And the land was sold in plots for residential purposes by land brokers against Rs 25 to 30 lakh per plot. Our inputs suggest that many senior officials are involved in the scam running into crores,” said one of the investigating officers, wishing not to be named.

After receiving a complaint about the illegal selling of state land by some revenue officials in upcoming residential area in Srinagar outskirts, the government Wednesday constituted two committees to investigate into the matter. While the Land Settlement Officer (Kashmir) constituted a committee of three deputy magistrates to probe the scam, Financial Commissioner Revenue handed over the probe to Staff Assistant Commissioner in his office, Naseer Ahmad Mir to ascertain the facts.  

The preliminary inquiry by deputy magistrates has already confirmed illegal selling of 260 kanals of land including some 100 kanals of grazing land by the accused officials. The investigating team headed by Mir is yet to submit its report. Two accused officials- Girdawar and Patwari- have already been suspended pending the probe.

Source: http://www.risingkashmir.in/news