Now, Union road transport ministry orders inquiry

HOSHIARPUR: Nearly a month after the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had ordered Punjab’s additional chief secretary to hold a probe into the multicrore land acquisition scam in Hoshiarpur, highlighted by Hindustan Times through a series of reports, the ministry of road transport, highways and shipping too has taken cognisance of the matter and marked an inquiry to the chief engineer (P-1) (project in-charge of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, J&K and Himachal Pardsh).

The intimation to this effect has been sent by surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari’s private secretary Vaibhav Dange to RTI Awareness Forum, Punjab, chairman Rajiv Vashisht, who had exposed the scam and submitted a complaint with the ministry.

The official documents procured by Vashisht through the RTI had brought forth several irregularities in the land compensation for the four-laning of Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur highway athat touches Himachal boundary.

It came out that certain land sharks, including a number of leaders of the ruling party, had purchased notified land from the farmers at throwaway prices in anticipation of acquisition and sold it to the government at higher rates.

A tract of 14.75 acres of agriculture land was acquired by the concerned officials at a whopping sum of `86 crore (@ `5.77 crore per acre) in Piplanwala village only. In all, 103 acres were to be acquired for `286 crore in Hoshiarpur district.

The day the PMO had ordered an inquiry into the alleged scam, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal ordered a vigilance probe. The vigilance bureau inquiry is going on at a fast pace, it is learnt.

Vashisht has requested the PMO for an inquiry by CAG (comptroller and auditor general of India) as well, alleging that the land acquisition officers of Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar had caused huge losses to the state exchequer by paying excess amount of compensation to the claimants.

By allowing registries of the land that had become the property of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) after official notifications, the concerned officers had acted irresponsibly, the RTI activist has alleged.