Bengaluru: Should the charges against Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav be proved, he could be booked for misuse of office, creating fictitious land records and causing a loss of crores to the state exchequer.
Mr Jadhav has since taking charge as Chief Secretary tried to get the land records for a piece of land his mother, Tarabai Maruthirao Jadhav, bought in Ramanayakanahalli in Anekal taluk in 2003 as there was no mention of it in the Records of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC), a vital document to establish ownership and possession.
Although multiple applications were submitted by Mr Jadhav he failed to get the RTC as the legitimacy of the previous ownership couldn’t be established. Sources claim that as the 73 acres in Survey no 29 bought by his mother were a part of gomala land belonging to the government for grazing cows, on taking over as Chief Secretary, Mr Jadhav asked the Bengaluru Urban DC to set the records right.
“The grant file is a source file which tells you how land is granted and for what purpose and to who. It also contains the survey sketch, Kharda, Akarbandh, village map (crucial documents that establishes the origin and ownership of land). If this file goes missing, you cannot establish the ownership,” explained an officer.
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As the land in question was gomala , he alleged that a new file was created in the DC’s office to show the legitimacy of the title of the previous owner to pave way for creating an RTC in the name of Mr Jadhav’s mother. Also claiming that around 43 private persons had benefited from “this land grab,” the officer noted that if there were truly 43 claimants there should have been 43 files pertaining to Survey 29. “How can 43 files goes missing?” he asked.
Once the new file was created, the Anekal tahsildhar was instructed to transfer the land though phodi, sources allege. The tahsildar then reportedly created a new survey no. 29/1 using the RTC transfer option after deleting the survey no. 29 on June 8.
“But as the transfer was from village A to village A, which means the same village Ramnayakanahalli, the tahsildhar was caught on the wrong foot.
He later approached the Bhoomi Monitoring Cell (BMC) and was told the transfer of the survey number was impermissible. Later told by his boss that the transfer could have been carried out in the old survey number itself, he panicked and wrote to the BMC to delete the new survey number 29/1,”allege sources.
But on June 8, Mr Jadhav and 42 private parties got RTCs in their names as of the 73 acres , 65 were allotted to different parties. When the matter was brought to the notice of Commissioner of Survey and Settlement of Land Records, Manish Moudgil, he instructed the BMC to lock the option of altering survey 29/1 and also wrote to NIC saying that transfer of the RTC option on Bhoomi software was being misused and needed rectification.
While all these developments were on, a dedicated whatsApp group was created on July 22 with Mr Arvind Jadhav, the DC Urban, the AC, tahsildhar and other officials as members to monitor the developments and carry out his instructions.
In the whatsApp chat accessed by Deccan Chronicle, Mr Jadhav pulls up the Joint Director, Bhoomi Monitoring Cell,asking why he was being lathargic and the latter replies saying the special DC of BMC should do the job.
Although the Commissioner (Survey and Settlement of Land Records) was on June 22 transferred to the Rajiv Housing Yogana, allegedly on the instructions of the Chief Secretary, he has continued to raise an alarm about the land deal at different levels.
