Fraud PIL filed in court, GDA stalls approvals for 137 plots in Swarn Jayanti Puram scheme
Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has barred map approvals for 137 plots in the Swarn Jayanti Puram housing scheme, which are currently under litigation in the civil court.
The scheme, launched in 1998, sold 1,553 plots of various sizes, but allotment of 137 were cancelled when owners defaulted on instalments. It was alleged that a few GDA officials, in connivance with property dealers, got the allotments of these plots restored between 2005 and 2007 after paying a paltry sum to the original allottees. The officials then got the plots transferred in their names.
The irregularities came to light in 2011 when a petition was filed in the high court, alleging that officials had indulged in fraudulent means to restore cancelled plots in the area.
The court had directed Moradabad range commissioner to investigate the matter.
The inquiry had found some officials, including former secretary and vice chairperson of GDA, were involved in the scam, and FIRs were registered against them in Dec 2017. However, action against officials found involved in the irregularities has been slow. In Oct 2022, Allahabad high court had reprimanded the GDA, saying it "slept over these files without taking any action".
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Sources said the Authority recently received map approval applications for some of these 137 plots. Subsequently, GDA additional secretary wrote to the town planning department asking it to bar map approvals of any of these 137 plots."There were attempts to get the map approval of 137 plots in the Swarn Jyanti Puram housing scheme, even though there is an ongoing case in the Ghaziabad civil court over plot allotment.
The additional secretary has directed the town planner to cancel map approvals for these plots, if any have been cleared already," a GDA official told TOI.
The fraud is estimated to have cost the state exchequer a loss of about Rs 3 crore and an additional Rs 30 lakh in stamp duty. TOI earlier reported that the 137 plots were allegedly restored at the sector rate of 1998 — when it ranged between Rs 2,575 per sqm and Rs 2,820 per sqm. But according to the rules, the plots ought to have been restored at the prevailing sector rate of 2005-2007 or 75% of the market value, whichever was higher.
The sector rate then was Rs 12,000 per sqm.
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