The Aam Aadmi Party has lashed out at both the Bhartiya Janata Party and the Congress for flouting the norms under Section 118 of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms Act and allotting land and allowing influential people to buy choicest plots to build palatial bungalows.
Both parties had gone out of the way to help AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Vadra buy land in Shimla at Chhrabara, a suburb, said Subhash Chander, State spokesperson of AAP. The place is in the vicinity of “the Retreat,” a presidential building.
The AAP maintained that because of the Land Reforms Act of 1972, it is difficult to buy a plot even for residents of Himachal, who are non-agriculturists, but VIPs like Ms. Vadra and other politicians get permission in a week. The common man is not allowed to buy even five biswas of land but these VIPs are buying and getting bighas of land at one go under Section 118, said the AAP.
The AAP spokesperson said the Congress leader, who refused to part with any information on her land citing security reasons, did not object when the land adjacent to her plot (Khasra No. 264/73, 265/73) was bought by Devendra Jeet Singh. Interestingly, after buying the land, this person was allowed to sell it again to Ms. Vadra in just two days. She got the land registered in her name for just Rs. 5.22 lakh.
The then incumbent government bent the rules to facilitate the deal at a special Cabinet meeting. Before that no one was allowed to sell the land he had bought under this law in such quick succession and one could buy land only once under this Land Reforms Act, said Mr. Subhash Chander.
The party has demanded a probe into this land deal by a sitting judge of the High Court and investigations into all such deals and permissions given by government under this Act between 2008 and 2015.
