Surjewala demands probe by HC judge into 'irregularities' in land transfer deeds in Haryana

Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Thursday demanded a probe by a sitting high court judge into alleged irregularities in the registration of land transfer deeds in the state during the lockdown.

He said the M L Khattar-led government should spell out the reason for temporarily stopping property registrations in the state.

The Haryana government has temporarily stopped the registration of land transfer deeds in the state to weed out various malpractices in the government's key revenue generation process.

The registration of transfer deeds of various categories of land has been stopped for varying periods between July 22 and August 15, an official release said on Wednesday.

The official release quoted Financial Commissioner (Revenue) Vijai Vardhan as saying "the state government has given serious consideration to the complaints of malpractices that exist in the current mechanism for registration of deeds for the transfer of land. Therefore, it has been decided to temporarily halt the registration of transfer deeds under the said (Registration) Act".

Surjewala said the state government halted the registration process in a hurry after various complaints of malpractices were made.

"There are several complaints of illegalities in registry process during the lockdown, especially in Gurgaon, Sonipat and Faridabad," the Congress' chief spokesperson alleged.

He claimed that in the last six years, there had been numerous scams in Haryana, but no proper investigation was conducted.

"As we know what will be the fate of these two recent scams -- liquor scam and registry scam -- we therefore, want that these two should be probed by a sitting judge of the high court," Surjewala, a former Haryana minister, told reporters during a video conference.

He accused Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar of maintaining conspicuous silence on the alleged registry scam.

"When the Khattar government itself is admitting that there were complaints of malpractices and if it knew that illegal colonies were being cut, illegalities were taking place in registry and conveyance deeds, then why it did not expose the culprits by putting them before the public," he asked.

"There is a long list of scams in the six years of the Khattar government from paddy purchase scam, Aravali land use scam, mining scam, roadways kilometre scheme scam, HSSC recruitment scam, SC scholarship scheme scam, power meter scam, liquor scam to the recent registry scam," he alleged.

He said in the alleged liquor scam, the chief minister had promised to get the investigation completed within 15 days, "but the government has put the matter on backburner".

"Now, we don't know whether they will order a probe into the registry scam, which has been pegged by one newspaper to be a Rs 1,000 crore scam," he said.

He accused the state government of "entangling a progressive state like Haryana into various scams".

When asked that in many of the alleged scams in which the Congress has pointed fingers at the Khattar dispensation, the government has maintained that there were no irregularities, Surjewala said, "There has been a theft in the house but unfortunately the chief minister and his deputy Dushyant Chautala are not ready to admit it."