12,208 hectares of panchayat land encroached in Haryana: Comptroller and Auditor General

CHANDIGARH: A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has revealed that 12,208 hectares of panchayat land in Haryana had been encroached upon while Rs 2.39 crore of annuity had not been paid by state public sector undertakings.

The CAG, in its report on Social, General and Economic Sectors which was tabled in the Haryana Assembly today, found that land measuring 12,208 hectares was under encroachment as of January 2013 but the cases for eviction in respect of only 7,567.38 hectares were filed up to September 2013.

In the remaining cases, the Principal Secretary directed, in September 2013, the staff to initiate proceedings to remove encroachment. However, the final action was awaited, the report states. The report was based on records of the Director General of Development and Panchayats departments.

The report said in seven test checked districts, no gram panchayats had prepared the land utilisation plan as required under the Punjab Village Common Land (Regulation) Rules, 1964.

The DG (D&P) stated in September 2013 that it was due to shortage of revenue staff in the field. There are 6,083 gram panchayats having 3,37,698.4 hectares area of common land as of March 2013.

The Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 also applicable to Haryana provides that all lands vested or deemed to have been vested in a panchayat shall be utilised or disposed of by it for the benefit of inhabitants of the village concerned.

The CAG found that the state public sector undertakings had not paid the annuity in six cases and in two cases, the full payment of annuity was not made which resulted in non recovery of annuity of Rs 2.39 crore.

In five districts, the annuity so sanctioned and released was not actually disbursed to gram panchayats and a sum of Rs 7.13 crore (including interest) was lying in the bank account of the District Development and Panchayat Officers ( DDPO), according to the report.