Insiders hand in glove with property dealers, encroachers
Officers not ready to act on numerous complaints
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 2: Contrary to the tall claims of the Government about providing good governance, Jammu Development Authority (JDA) is denying possession of commercial as well as residential plots to large number of allottees even after taking lakhs of rupees from them mainly because the insiders are hand in glove with the property dealers and encroachers.
Moreover, numerous complaints in this regard lodged with the Advisors to the Lieutenant Governor and senior bureaucrats during Public Outreach Programme have failed to provide justice to these allottees and they are still running from pillar to post for getting their due right from the Jammu Development Authority.
As per the record available with EXCELSIOR, the Jammu Development Authority vide Advertisement Notice No.Secy/JDA/PS/1390 dated February 21, 2018 invited sealed bids from the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir for the allotment of various land patches in a prescribed format and in sealed cover.
Accordingly, large number of bids were received by the Jammu Development Authority and after following due procedure names of the successful bidders were announced for allotment of plots after payment of quoted amount. However, even after receiving full payment and 18% interest on the delayed payment the Jammu Development Authority has not given possession of the plots to large number of allottees for the reasons best known to those who remained at the helm of affairs in the Authority.
Shockingly, in certain cases when the process of signing of lease deed was initiated the allottees were conveyed by the officers of the Jammu Development Authority that they were not able to locate the plots on the ground which were mentioned in the Advertisement Notice No.Secy/JDA/PS/1390 dated February 21, 2018.
One such example is land strip No.23 measuring 2598 square feet at Dilli in Khasra Number 781 for which letter of intent for allotment was issued by the Jammu Development Authority on June 18, 2018 in favour of highest bidder namely Vivek Gupta, son of Vinod Gupta of Shivalik Puram Janipur.
From this successful bidder the Jammu Development Authority took Rs 55 lakh as well as more than Rs one lakh as 18% interest on the delayed payment. However, the process was stalled at the stage of signing of lease deed on the plea that plot was not existing on the ground despite the fact that even site plan was duly prepared by the Authority.
Thereafter, the successful bidder lodged complaints with the senior officers of the Authority and even brought the issue to the notice of Advisors to the Lieutenant Governor and Administrative Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department Dheeraj Gupta but till date he has not been given justice.
Even complaint was lodged with the Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, who referred the matter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau for detailed investigation but the ACB also adopted dilly-dallying approach and the allottee is running from pillar to post till date.
“It is really a matter of concern that plot which was auctioned by the JDA is not allegedly existing on the ground and all those responsible for this scam are required to be brought to book as on one side they caused monetary loss to the allottee and on the other side deprived JDA of its land patch”, official sources stressed.
Similarly, Meenakshi Kapoor and Sudesh Gupta, who were the successful bidders for Plot No.1 and Plot No.6 in Paloura, have not been given possession of the land patches even after making full payment to the Jammu Development Authority and despite numerous requests made to the concerned officers.
“We approached Secretary of the JDA Reetika Arora, Director Land Management Puneet Sharma and respective Vice-Chairperson of the JDA a number of times but they never showed any interest in giving possession of the land patches”, Meenakshi and Sudesh told EXCELSIOR.
Moreover, there are certain allottees, who are unable to start construction work on the plots even after taking possession mainly because certain people are creating obstructions.
Some of them are Sahil Kapoor, allottee of Plot Number 4, Anayat Ali (Plot Number 5) and Ramayata (Plot Number 3), all in Paloura. “Whenever we tried to start construction work certain persons created obstructions on unjustifiable grounds”, Sahil Kapoor said.
“This is mainly because insiders in Jammu Development Authority are hand in glove with property dealers and encroachers”, sources said, adding “these allottees have not been able to reap benefits of huge amount paid to the Jammu Development Authority mainly because of deep-rooted nexus”.
They appealed to the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Secretary to look into style of working of the Jammu Development Authority officers and take strict action against all those who maintained silence instead of providing justice to these allottees.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
