E-Paper
Tarn Taran zila parishad chief’s son slights SDM over land mutation row
SDM says the family was pressuring him to do mutation of over 5-kanal land despite a court’s stay order
A bitter war of words has erupted between the family of Congress party’s Tarn Taran Zila Parishad chairperson Harcharanjit Kaur and sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Rajneesh Arora over the mutation of land at Chaudhari Wala village. Kaur’s son used derogatory remarks against the magistrate on his Facebook page, while the latter accused the family of trying to bribe him to get illegal work done.
Arora said Kaur’s family has been pressuring him to do “illegal” work of transferring a land in her family’s name despite a court’s stay order. He also alleged that local MLA Dr Dharambir Agnihotri has also been coaxing him to favour Kaur’s family.
Kaur son, Vishal Sharma alias Sonu, who stays abroad, on his Facebook page asked the SDM not to create “obstacles deliberately” in the case. “We don’t want to be offensive,” he said, adding that, “Don’t teach a wrong lesson to your senior officers. Work impartially.”
While replying to a comment in the post, he wrote: “…He is a sincere man….He has also put his stomach ahead (he is a corrupt man)….We respect him, but he doesn’t want to.” Sonu’s father Charanjit Sharma, a former Market Committee chairman, said he was aware of the post by his son. “I had asked him to do so,” he said.
The SDM said he will send the screenshots of the remarks to deputy commissioner (DC) Kulwant Singh, seeking action against him. “The family wanted to involve me in the illegal work. Even the local MLA asked me to favour the family. They also offered me bribe, but I declined. A patwari is hand in glove with the family. Lately, I have transferred my reader Gursharan Singh who used to pass secret official information to the family,” Arora said.
He said, “The family claims to have one kanal land in the village. The land of the village was consolidated in 1976. The family says they were given 5.6-kanal land from the consolidated land instead of their one kanal. A court had stayed the transfer of land in 2004. After this, the family filed a petition in Punjab and Haryana High court in 2008. The petition was accepted, but the family never approached the court again. The matter is still pending in the court.”
He said there were many more technicalities in the case and he has already explained the entire matter to his superiors.
Charanjit Sharma said, “I will approach the Punjab chief minister if the SDM continues to work against us. If we can’t get our work done when our party is in power, where will we go?” He said the SDM was deliberately creating obstacles in their case.
MLA Agnihotri said he never interfered in the case. “The law should take its course. The matter was in my knowledge as a few months ago, the opposite party had assured in writing that they will not raise any objection if the mutation is done in the name of the chairperson’s family.”
