Ownership of these farmhouses continues to remain a mystery, with multiple departments throwing the ball in each other’s court. (File) Several reminders and directions from State Information Commission notwithstanding, the Haryana government is yet to furnish the names of the owners of 60 contentious farm houses constructed illegally in the Aravallis (Faridabad and Gurgaon districts).
Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka had been seeking information about the ownership of the said 60 farm houses for over two years under the Right to Information Act. In a recent order, issued by the Haryana State Information Commission, directions were issued to the Financial Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue and Disaster Management) to ensure compliance of Information Commission’s two earlier orders – dated July 9, 2021 and November 15, 2021 — to furmish the information to the IAS officer. Khemka has now once again written to the two senior officials to ensure compliance of the order .
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“You are requested to inform the names of all owners of farm houses constructed in the Aravallis after ascertaining their ownership – especially the 60 farm houses mentioned in a reply of the Minister to Starred Question which came up before the Vidhan Sabha on February 27, 2020,” Khemka wrote on March 10.
The State Information Commission, in its November 15, 2021 order, had stated, “The Financial Commissioner (Revenue) shall submit the compliance of the Commission’s order dated July 9, 2021 along with the inquiry report submitted by Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram and Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad to the Commission before the next date of hearing”.
The State Information Commission, in its July 9, 2021 order, had recommended to the Financial Commissioner (Revenue) “that the committees consisting of concerned officers of Faridabad and Gurugram districts i.e. District Forest
Officer, District Town Planner, District Revenue Officer and Executive Officer may be constituted to ascertain the correct ownership of the farm houses in Aravali area – specifically the 60 farm houses falling under their jurisdiction and submit the report within a reasonable time frame, preferably, within two months of the receipt of this order”.
It was in 2020, when BJP MLA from Badhkhal in Faridabad, Seema Trikha sought information in the Vidhan Sabha to ascertain the “year-wise details of farm houses developed along with their owners’ name, area of the farm house and the date of releasing electricity connection for the farm houses in Aravali during the year from 2000 to 2020, respectively”. Replying to her query, then forest minister Kanwar Pal had given the other details including farm houses’ khasra numbers, areas and the fact that no permissions were given to the said 60 farm houses, but he did not reveal the owners’ names.
Ownership of these farmhouses continues to remain a mystery, with multiple departments throwing the ball in each other’s court.
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) had submitted to the State Information Commission details about electricity connections given to these farm houses, but that failed to yield details about the ownership.
It was also learnt that the farmhouses that were given electricity connections do not have permission under the Forest (Conservation) Act or Controlled Area Act.
The case pertains to 60 farmhouses over which Khemka had filed an RTI application seeking details of their ownership. The application was filed on February 28, 2020 Kanwar Pal’s reply in the Vidhan Sabha.
Haryana’s former Principal Secretary (Town and Country Planning) A K Singh, in an earlier hearing in the State
Information Commission, had submitted that “out of total 60 alleged farmhouses, 54 fall within the jurisdictions of Urban Local Bodies and Forest Department… Therefore, only six… are falling in the work jurisdictions of both the State Public Information Officers of TCP Department. And out of these six, alleged activity of farm housing has been detected only in the revenue estate of village Khedla (Gurugram) on 29.06.2021 and the same has been found at initial stage in the form of boundary walls and action against the same is being taken up…”
The forest department, too on an earlier hearing of the State Information Commission, did provide names of a few people who own between 2 and 18.5 acres of land, but added that the “actual and real ownership” could only be verified from revenue records.
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