BHUBANESWAR: The state government has constituted a seven-member team to probe the illegal and fraudulent lease settlement of government land in Bhubaneswar and Jatni tehsils of Khurda following detection of ‘unauthorised’ lease of around 4.24 acre in the name of a public servant, during his service period, at Ogalapada village in the district.
Issuing an order, the Revenue and Disaster Management department said the team will conduct a thorough probe into the fraudulent settlement cases on the basis of the terms of reference (ToR), and submit a detailed report within a month.
Special secretary of LRGE branch has been appointed as the chairman of the team, while additional secretary (CH&S), ADM Revenue (Khurda), ADM Bhubaneswar, settlement officer Cuttack and Bhubaneswar/Jatni tehsildar are its members. Joint secretary (CH&S) in the Revenue department has been appointed as the convenor of the team.
As per the ToR, the team will undertake a comprehensive examination of the settlement of government land under the wasteland lease in Bhubaneswar and Jatni. It will examine the original case record and verify whether the settlement of government land was made in accordance with the laws, and recommend appropriate corrective measures, including cancellation or resumption of leases, recovery of government land and protection utilising the funds meant for the same.
The team has been asked to identify if there were cases involving forged or fabricated document, manipulation of revenue records, suppression of material facts or substantive illegality; and also identify if there were any lapses or dereliction of duty of the officials.
The issue surfaced recently, after the Board of Revenue received an application seeking to record over 4.24 acre of government land in Ogalapada village under Jatni tehsil, worth about `100 crore, in the name of a purchaser.
The Board, however, rejected the application and directed the Revenue officials concerned to conduct a detailed inquiry into the lease and subsequent sale of the land, after it was found that it was leased to an OAS officer in 1968 under the Odisha Government Land Settlement Act, 1962 (OGLS Act), for agricultural purposes.
“A government servant, by virtue of holding salaried public office, does not qualify as a landless poor person under the OGLS Act and prima facie, obtaining such a lease constitutes a fraud on the statute and misrepresentation of eligibility,” member, Board of Revenue, Satyabrata Sahu had observed while hearing the case.
The tehsildar’s report submitted to the Board during the hearing process further highlighted the problem of encroachment in Ogalapada, where more than 20 acre of government land was reportedly found to be under unauthorised occupation despite being recorded in the government’s name. The Board had asked the Revenue department to examine the matter.
