Uttarakhand HC seeks reply of state govt, municipal corporation on 'illegal' transfer of nazul land

Nainital, Dec 1 (PTI) The Uttarakhand High Court on Monday heard a petition alleging illegal transfer and freeholding of a prime nazul land in Rudrapur area of Udham Singh Nagar district.

The division bench of Chief Justice G Narendra and Justice Subhash Upadhyay extended the earlier stay on all construction and development activities at the site and directed the state government and municipal corporation to file their replies within two weeks.

The next hearing is scheduled after two weeks.

During Monday's hearing, the state government and the municipal corporation sought time to file affidavits, which the court granted while keeping the stay order in force.

According to the PIL filed by former municipal corporation member Rambabu, officials and private parties allegedly colluded to secure illegal freeholding of about 4.07 acres (16,500 square metres) of nazul land, originally recorded as a pond, in Lamara revenue village.

The land was auctioned in 1988 only for fisheries development on a two-year lease. However, the bidders neither accepted the lease nor started fish farming.

Instead, the petition alleged, private parties encroached upon the land without valid lease documents and later manipulated records to get it illegally converted into freeholding land.

During the freeholding process, the original Khasra No 2 (Lamara village) was allegedly changed to Khasra No 156 (Rampura village) to hide discrepancies in revenue documents.

The freeholding was done at the outdated 1988 auction rates, despite the land now being worth crores of rupees, causing a major loss to the state exchequer, the petition alleged.

It further stated that the private parties have entered into a joint venture with a construction company and were preparing to build a large mall on the land. PTI DPT RUK RUK