Land worth Rs 140 crore wrongly declared as abadi: Probe

GREATER NOIDA: A preliminary probe being carried out by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has found at least 100 acres of land worth more than Rs 140 crores to have been wrongly declared as abadi land. Officials probing the alleged scam have found irregularities in the process of declaring abadi land for farmers of three villages in YEIDA area whose land was acquired by the government in 2010.
The inquiry into alleged anomalies was ordered by YEIDA board in January this year.Later, when chairman Prabhat Kumar took charge, he too ordered an investigation into any irregularities of leaseback.
According to an official, who preferred to remain anonymous till complete report has been formulated and submitted to state government, the leaseback scam could be unearthed in more villages.
“The probe is likely to be completed in the next two to three months. We expect more villages and more land to be involved in the scam,” said the official.
The villages which have been found to be involved in initial investigation include Jaganpur Afzalpur, Dankaur and Niloni Shahpur.
“Land in nearly 40 cases in three villages have been found to be wrongly declared as abadi land. Even after seven years, there is no residential construction on the said land left for abadi purpose. Inspection of the land has revealed that it is agriculture land and farmers are cultivating the land for crops,” the official explained.
The official said, another point of investigation is whether in the guise of leasing back land to farmers, the Authority had leased back residential land to individuals who were not farmers and who do not belong to villages in the YEIDA area, which is inclear violation of the laiddown norms.