Chandigarh, March 15: Haryana Chief Minister, Sh.  Manohar Lal, while reiterating his commitment towards the zero-tolerance policy adopted against corruption, today announced that data of land registries done between the years 2010 to 2016, would be investigated to check violation of 7-A norms. 

The Chief Minister made this announcement during the discussion on Calling Attention Motion regarding irregularities in the registries during the ongoing Budget session of the Vidhan Sabha.

He said that whenever any case of corruption has come up before the present state government, the government itself has taken strict cognizance and further action has been taken on the same.  Similarly, in the case of irregularities in the registries, the government itself took cognizance and got the records of the tehsils checked, added Sh. Manohar Lal. 

The Chief Minister said that violations of 7-A in land registries done between years 2010 to 2016 in 140 Tehsils and sub-tehsils would be investigated and the entire process would be taken forward at a fast pace.

Strict action will be taken against anyone found involved in this entire matter.  If required, the records up to the year 2004 will also be investigated, added Sh. Manohar Lal.  

Taking a jibe at the opposition, the Chief Minister said that the opposition never shared any authenticated information. 

It is we, who have tightened the noose around those involved in corruption. The opposition can only point fingers and works to mislead the people by talking beyond the facts, said Sh. Manohar Lal.

He said that on June 13, 2020, some complaints of irregularities in the registry were received from Gurugram and the Financial Commissioner, Divisional Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners were asked on August 13, 2020, to take cognizance of the same and share the complete data of the violation of  7-A norms in their respective tehsils with the State Government.  

As a result of this, the data of about 60,000 registries has come to the notice of the government. The Tehsildars, Sub-Tehsildars, Patwaris, Clerks, etc., related to these registries were asked to file their replies within 15 days, said Sh. Manohar Lal. 

The Chief Minister said that earlier the work of registry was done manually, but the State Government has introduced an online system in September 2020.  New registries were not done across the state for one-and-a-half months to make all the systems run smoothly.

Sh. Manohar Lal said that given the irregularities in the registry, the State Government noticed that only 2 kanals that is 1000 square meters of land is used for illegal colonies.  The words agriculture land and vacant land used under the rule were misused to get the registries done.  To keep a check on this, we decided that the limit of 2 Kanal land should be 1 acre, informed Sh. Manohar Lal. 

He said that anyone who buys and sells small land to develop illegal colonies should be stopped from doing this. 

The Chief Minister said that some people may not tolerate today's announcement regarding the investigation of the registries that had been done between 2010 to 2016 and they can also knock the doors of the court but the government will not back down from its campaign against corruption at any cost.