The Opposition in Haryana upped the ante against the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government demanding the chief minister’s resignation over shady land deals. The Congress-led state government is in the eye of a storm over allegations of an illegal land transfer to the Ullawas Panchayat to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in Gurgaon
Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Chautala told a press meet on Wednesday in Chandigarh that the chief minister of Haryana should resign and demanded that the state government should come out with a white paper on all land deals since 2005.
Haryana farmers had recently challenged the land acquisition by the state government before the Punjab and Haryana High court. However, talking to Business Standard, a senior official in the Haryana government said there was no need to relook into the matter as there were no anomalies. He said a resolution was passed by the previous gram panchayat members to lease the shyamlat land, but subsequently there was a panchayat election and a new body took over. “With escalating land costs, the priorities of the gram panchayat might have changed,” he said.
| UPPING THE ANTE |
| * INLD leader Abhay Chautala said the state government should come out with a white paper on all land deals since 2005 |
| * Farmers had challenged the land acquisition by the state government before the Punjab and Haryana HC |
Town and Country Planning Secretary S S Dhillon said the panchayat had initially wanted to sell the land for which a resolution was passed in May 2008. The government rejected the resolution as there was no provision to sell shyamlat land.
The panchayat again passed a resolution to lease the land to the trust. The government gave its approval on December 14, 2009.
Over 60 petitions were filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the proceedings for acquisition of land for nine sectors in Gurgaon. One of the petitioners contended that since the government had released the land taken on lease by the Rajiv Gandhi Trust, he should enjoy the same benefits.
Yesterday, 57 petitions were disposed of by the court with a direction to the petitioners to approach the high powered committee set up by the state government to sort out the issues.
