JAIPUR: The state government on Tuesday put a temporary ban on the land-for-land policy following recent allegations of a scam in its implementation in the city.
A section of Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) officials is reportedly involved in the scam, which pertains to prime government land having been handed over to developers and brokers. JDA officials allegedly violated the policy’s provisions to acquire land for sector roads along the Ring Road in Sanganer area of Jaipur.
The policy came into implementation in 2018 to hand over government land, instead of money, as compensation in cases where the government needs to acquire private land for projects.
“There are allegations that in February 2021, JDA officials acquired land from some brokers and developers to build sector roads in Sanganer area adjacent to the Ring Road and handed over prime government lands to them in exchange. The price of the government land so handed over is much higher than the market rates of the land acquired by the government. The officials involved simply violated the provisions of the policy to make the deals,” said a senior urban development and housing (UDH) department official.
According to a report available with the department, the rate of the land JDA acquired on a stretch of 47 km between Ajmer Road and Agra Road was fixed at Rs 5,419 per square metre. But JDA acquired the land at rates between Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000 per square metre and allotted government land of such high rates to the landowners, who were mainly land brokers and developers and had bought this land from farmers at a low rate just before the deals were made.
“As per this policy, the government can acquire land under this policy only if more than 70% of the land required for a project is already available with the government. But, in this case, more than 50% of the total land mentioned in the DPRs was acquired by JDA,” said another UDH official.
Sources said the government would shorty order an inquiry against the officials who engaged in the deals. “It is also necessary that the government makes this policy foolproof by removing the flaws in it. A temporary ban has been put on this policy for this purpose,” added the official.
