Haryana Lokayukta orders SIT probe

URBAN LOCAL BODIES DEPARTMENT FAILS TO PROVIDE DOCUMENTS ON HOW A SINGLE HOUSE WAS APPROVED AS A COLONY

KARNAL: Haryana Lokayukta, Justice Nawal Koshor Agarwal has recommended a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into allegations that a bungalow belonging to Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhokar was declared a residential colony.

The orders were issued on the complaint filed by a Panipatbased activist PP Kapoor who alleged that Chhokar had built a house on 0.75 acres (6 kanal) along National Highway 44 in Samalkha town of Panipat in 2013, when Congress was in power. Chhokar allegedly applied for approval of the project in 2014 but it was rejected as it was not in compliance with the regularisation parameters. Following the rejection, the municipal authorities named Chhokar’s 6-kanal house as Sai Enclave Colony and re-sent the case to the department and it was approved in 2018. After a show-cause notice was issued by the Lokayukta, the urban local bodies department had stated that the file, containing details of how this one house was declared a colony, had gone missing.

The Lokayukta has given three months time to the SIT to submit the investigation report.

When contacted, Chokker refuted the allegations of irregularities in the construction and regularisation and said it was approved during the BJP rule. “There are several other people living in this locality. The order is against the government and not against my construction and several officials have already verified it,” he added.