Bir Devinder demands immediate sack of Revenue Minister Punjab for multi-crore stamp duty scam

Bir Devinder demands immediate sack of Revenue Minister Punjab for multi-crore stamp duty scam

Also demands arrest of Mohali Tehsildar Vikash Sharma for criminal conspiracy against the State

Nabaz-e-Punjab Bureau, Chandigarh, June 11:
The Senior Vice President of SAD (Sanyukat) and former Deputy Speaker, Punjab Vidhan Sabha has demanded immediate dismissal of Revenue Minister Punjab, Gurpreet Singh Kangar for conniving to cause the deliberate loss of more than 110 crore to the State exchequer in a multi-crore stamp duty scam occurred in a tehsil of Mohali.
The party has also demanded the arrest of the Mohali Tehsildar, Vikas Sharma, besides departmental punitive action against him for committing a criminal conspiracy against the State in connivance with the MGF Developers.
Bir Devinder said that it was unbelievable that a Sub-Registrar level officer of the Revenue department posted in Mohali as Tehsildar could ventured to sanction the transfer and mutation of 120 Acre of commercial land from EMAAR MGF to MGF Developers in a deliberate disregard of the revenue loss to the State exchequer due to the non-payment of state’s stamp duty of more than 112 crores.
“It is preposterous that when the previous Tehsildar raised valid objections on the order passed by NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) in 2018, the inconvenient Tehsildar irked the Revenue Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and he immediately transferred the Tehsildar on April 7, 2021 and brought his own ‘buddy’ who accomplished the cumbersome illegal job, within a week’s time of his joining as Tehsildar Mohali on April 9, 2021 to please his ‘Masters’ in utter disregard of the significant noting which existed on the mother file,” said the former deputy speaker.

He added that now it was a matter of police investigation that at whose behest the incumbent Tehsildar Vikash Sharma after joining, hurriedly constructed a new parallel file and approved the mutation as desired by the MGF Developers without charging a single penny as stamp duty and thus causing huge loss to the State exchequer. He said the criminal lapse had been highlighted by the Mohali DC while cancelling the mutation sanctioned by the Tehsildar a while ago.
Bir Devinder also said, “The mere fact that this has happened in ‘Mohali’ being a District headquarter and gateway to the State of Punjab, demonstrates that there is complete collapse of administrative and bureaucratic control at all levels of governance. The kind of indecent haste Mohali Tehsildar has shown in sanctioning the mutation in favour of the MGF Developers, speaks volumes of the decay and corruption at the highest level. Otherwise a Tehsildar level officer cannot have the daring nerves to do such contemptible things at his own level; unless someone from the top echelon of power pressurizes and compelled him to do the things, the way they desired.”
He asked the Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh that in such a degenerated political atmosphere of utter despondency and collapse; why the CM was still silent on the issue? He said, “Why Chief Minister shirking to guard the fundamental financial interest of the State, which has already become a fiscal wreck due to institutionalized corruption?”
“If demonstrable punitive action against the erring officer and the Revenue Minister is not taken forthwith; it would be logically construed that the buck in this case stops, only at the doors of the Chief Minister,” Bir Devinder stated.