In Ghaziabad, adjacent to Delhi, the most spectacular case has come to light, involving more than 140 hectares of land worth over Rs 1000 crore related to the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA).
After GDA vice-president Krishna Karunesh took office, officials of the acquisition department with the land records of the authority were summoned, saying that the land that was rescued for the future after the investigation was ‘missing’.
According to a report by the Times of India, a GDA official said, “Krishna was well aware of the financial position of the authority and was exploring money-raising options.” For this, the Land Acquisition Department was asked to bring a land record. After the investigation, it was found that 140 hectares of land worth more than Rs 1,000 crore was ‘missing’.
For example, some time ago, the GDA acquired 200 hectares of land at Pratap Vihar. Similarly, an area of about 166 hectares has been developed, with the remaining land nowhere to be found at the time of the survey. Similarly, there are still eight places where authorities are having problems locating ‘missing’ land.
When asked how to ‘disappear’ such a large land? “We suspect that the land may have overlapped with the Mafia and some corrupt GDA officials or the GDA may have failed to acquire the land,” the official said.
He said the Department of Enforcement and Land Acquisition has been notified to locate the ‘missing’ land, while the Vice President has instructed the authorities to initiate an investigation to find the culprits.
According to the documents, over time the GDA acquired 524.28 hectares of land in Indirapuram, of which 503.70 hectares were developed, while the remaining 19.74 hectares were ‘missing’.
Similarly, the GDA acquired approximately 93.56 hectares in Kaushambi, of which 89.06 hectares have been developed, while the remaining 4.2 hectares are unknown. While the GDA has acquired 260.46 hectares in Vaishali, 236.36 hectares have been developed, where 23.56 hectares of unused land is also missing.
If the Authority acquires a total of 229.92 hectares of land in the poet city, 223.45 hectares have been developed, the remaining land is unknown. Of the 292.27 hectares acquired in Rajnagar, 274.44 hectares were used for development purposes while 17.83 hectares were ‘missing’.
Apart from this 140 hectares, nearly Rs 500 crore of land belonging to the GDA is embroiled in various levels of litigation. The officer said that the VC had directed its legal department to get back the land and inform them of every issue.
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