MP govt spares rod for minister, spoils Pachmarhi

The most prominent of these are a house owned by PWD minister and MP ‘‘beedi king’’ Shravan Patel and a hotel built by its Tourism Department with the foundation stone being laid by the minister concerned, Ajay Singh, the son of former Chief Minister Arjun Singh.

In fact, while the four properties the government has chosen to act against were built after fulfiling all revenue department criteria, no such permission was sought by the PWD Minister or the Tourism Department.

The houses in the name of Pradeep Kishen and Aradhana Seth were completed in 1996 after all necessary revenue formalities. It was at this time that the PWD Minister was constructing a sprawling house on land leased from the earlier government.

The minister, after the state withdrew a legal case, obtained permission from local authorities, who were not entitled to do so, to construct on this land. But within months, the Hoshangabad Collector, cancelled the permission. Accordingly, the local revenue authorities wrote to ‘‘Shri Shravan Kumar Patel, son of Shri Parmanandbhai Patel’’ on 3.6.1996 that the Collector Hoshangabad has directed that ‘‘a case for violating the conditions of the lease be lodged against you’’ for starting construction work.

The lease has since been referred to the government for cancellation and the Forest Department has also issued a notice to Shravan Patel in 2002. But no action has been taken and the house stands completed.

Similar is the case with Glen View Resort built by the MP Tourism Department. The department has pleaded that it has only added to the construction that existed at the site.

But as late as 31.7.2002, the officials concerned, quoting a letter from the Forest Department clearly state that in view of the Vanprani Adhiniyam 1972, it was not possible to grant permission to the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation for building a hut at Suman Bungalow. A far more lavish structure now stands at the spot.

In fact, Conservator of Forest and Park Director B.D. Sankhwar says he does not blame people like Pradip Kishen and Aradhana Seth for the illegal constructions. ‘‘In most cases, I don’t blame the individuals concerned. They obtained the necessary revenue documents, including registries and mutations. But how was it possible to issue these even after the Revenue Department was notified by us way back in 1970s regarding the notification of the forest area?’’

When contacted, Shravan Patel referred the matter to his lawyer P.D. Tiwari who said permission had been granted by the Special Area Development Authority Pachmarhi in 1995 to construct the house. He said by the time the Collector rescinded the order in 1996, the house was ready.

Asked about the notice by the Forest Department, he said the house was built on land leased in 1967 when this was not a notified forest area. He agreed that the order came into affect in 1972, much before the 1995 date of construction. On the forest notice, he said the Collector had moved to denotify the area in 2000 but this had not come into affect.

The new MP Tourism Director Gauri Singh said she had been told all construction in the Pachmarhi Civil Area after 1991 technically constituted an ‘‘encroachment’’ but that the Collector had moved to denotify this area.

In other words, these two buildings stand in violation of the law. And this same law has been put to use to cancel the sale of land to Arundhati Roy’s husband which lies in the revenue village of Bariam on the outskirts of Pachmarhi.