E-Paper
Free-hold plots not free of fraud
IF YOU are thinking of buying a plot of land in Jankipuram on Sitapur Road or anywhere on the outskirts of the city from a cooperative housing society, perish the thought. Reason: Majority of these housing societies that dot the city?s fringe with ?free-hold-plots-available? sign-boards are out to dupe you by selling LDA land grabbed by them.
IF YOU are thinking of buying a plot of land in Jankipuram on Sitapur Road or anywhere on the outskirts of the city from a cooperative housing society, perish the thought.
Reason: Majority of these housing societies that dot the city’s fringe with ‘free-hold-plots-available’ sign-boards are out to dupe you by selling LDA land grabbed by them. Nothing illustrates this better than the manner in which dozens of gullible buyers were taken for a ride by at least private housing societies that fraudulently sold to them a huge chunk of land earmarked by LDA for its housing scheme in Jankipuram.
The fraud could have been thwarted had officials of the development regulator’s enforcement section been vigilant. The racket would not have come into light had some plot-buyers not approached the LDA to get the layout plan of their respective housing society approved?
A notification for the land in question measuring around 1073.54 acres belonging to five villages, namely, Tiwaripur, Misrapur, Mirzapur, Atrauli and Mandiaon on Sitapur Road was issued by the authorities on December 3, 1981.
Subsequently, a declaration vesting the land with the government under Section 6/17 of the UP Land Acquisition Act was issued on November 8, 1985. The next step for additional district magistrate (land acquisition) would have been to invoke Section 9 declaring the compensation award and handing over the physical possession of the land to the LDA. But the process was not completed and the issue was allowed to hang fire.
This is where the blame-game begins. While LDA officials blame the administration authorities for handing over the possession, the latter holds former accountable for the lapse. “Had they been vigilant they would have pursued the matter and prevented the housing societies from grabbing the land.
After all, it is the job of LDA’s enforcement wing to keep encroachers at bay,” pointed out an administration officer.
The three cooperative housing societies now being accused of selling this land are: Rameshwaram, Sandipan and India Sahkari Grah Awas Samiti. “After selling this land at Rs 150 to 200 per square feet, the office-bearers of the societies have disappeared from the scene,” said an LDA official. When contacted, executive engineer SK Srivastava, who looks after land acquisition matters in the LDA, said the department would soon be issuing a public warning asking people not to purchase plots from private housing societies in the region. “If they still go ahead they would be doing so at their own risk. They should first verify that the society in question possesses a duly approved layout plan from the LDA before signing on the dotted line,” he said.
