Irregularities found in registration of properties in Gurugram

Gurugram: In less than a week, two major irregularities have surfaced in Gururgam that highlights the collusion between builders and public officials. Despite of various allegations in the past against corruption in the public department regarding registration of the land, no concrete action has been taken.

On Saturday, the District Court in Gurugram, however, broke the trend and ordered that cases should be filed against 31 people including seven public officials (tehsildars), 14 builders. It has been alleged that the accused deliberately reduced the circle rate valuation and thereby caused a loss to the Government by over Rs 5 crore during 2009-2014 when the realty market in Gurugram's Manesar was at its peak.

The irregularities were first reported by a social activist group which filed the case against the irregularities in the one of the city's police stations. However, slow probe in the matter resulted in the complainant approaching the court which after two years delivered the verdict that a case should be registered against the people accused in causing loss to government's exchequer.

The public officials who will face the trial are Hari Om Atri, Pankaj Sethia, Balraj Singh, KS Danka and Lalit Gupta.

Another case of irregularity has emerged in the sale of EWS flats. There are reports that more than 300 EWS flats in the city that had a lock-in period of five years and cannot be sold before then were allowed to be sold within days of their purchase. The issue of this form of corruption also came forward to the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar recently who took action by suspending one of the public officials involved in the registration of these units.

Various raids conducted in the past against Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) highlighted that how certain officials were providing occupation certificate to the builders who were building the illegal colonies. Ironically, the challenge of illegal colonies continues to date in the city. Collusion of the public officials with the builders and allowing them to change their floor to area ratio (FAR) has also come to the fore.