High Court seeks government reply on transfer of land

Kolkata, Jul 14 (UNI) Calcutta High Court today asked the state government what steps it had taken to stop illegal transfer of land in the city of Salt Lake and how many such cases took place since it came into existence.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikash Sridhar Sirpurkar and Nadira Patherya directed the government to file a report detailing the fact at the earliest.

The government, however, filed an affidavit, saying it had set up a committee to look into the alleged transfer of land and landed property in the satellite city, built with the slit from the Hooghly on the eastern outskirt of this state capital.

The township was conceived by Dr B C Ray to offer homes to the middle-class Bengalis after population of the city of joy and first capital of the British empire exploded in the wake of the partition of undivided Bengal.

The government said the inquiry committee had received 921 complaints of illegal transfer of land and landed property and of these , 421 were found baseless.

Investigation into 234 cases were pending and the government moved to the court seeking eviction of 15 plots on the recomendations of the committee, it was said in the affidavit.

The case which triggered widespread controversy in the political circles was filed by a Salt Lake resident Rama Prasad Sarkar.

UNI XC SJC/SRC1830