Cong smells major scam in Guj: Rs 10,000 crore loss to Govt

Gandhinagar, Mar 22 (UNI) Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Arjun Modhwadia today alleged that the Modi government was working in tandem with the land mafia in the state and had benefited by over Rs 10,000 crore in the past few years.

However, the State Government refuted the allegations levelled by the Congress leader and said the revenue to the state exchequer had increased in the past few years.

Making a submission in the Assembly during the demands of Revenue Department of Gujarat Government, Mr Modhwadia said that the state has lost over Rs 10,000 as the land mafia took advantage of the article 70 (O) of Farm Labourers Act.

Mr Modhwadia sought reviewing of all the land proceedings made under article 70 (O) of Farm Labourer act, by Justice of the Gujarat High Court.

The Congress leader alleged that taking advantage of article (o), the land mafias are taking away the lands, which were given to farm-labourers for farming, on lease for non-farming purpose by making power of attorney from them.

He said the State Revenue Department had issued guideline that benefitted the land mafias who created forged farm-labourers for the allotted lands and took power of attorney from them.

These handing over of the rights of use of lands without transferring of ownership rights have deprived the state government of premium worth Rs 10,000-crore, he alleged.

Responding to the allegations, Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel defended the guildlines issued by the State Government saying that it was done to facilitate the farm-labourers and to prevent malpractices and corruption during transfer of rights.

He said the State government has made it compulsory to register all the dealings made as Power of Attorney by the Farm Labourers.

Mr Patel said innovative steps taken by his ministry has generated more revenue for the state treasury. The computerised registration of documentations has made the procedure easy and as a result, over 5,00,000 registrations were made in the seven municipal corporations in Gujarat.

UNI