Look, how BHADA ‘flawed’ in allotting plots to people who were not eligible

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Look, how BHADA ‘flawed’ in allotting plots to people who were not eligible

POWER OF RTI: Information obtained by activist says ‘municipal jurisdiction’ criterion violated, officials allotted plots on basis of power connections that never existed
D V MAHESHWARI

Posted online: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
Bhuj, October 22

More than seven years after the killer earthquake of January 2001 that had warranted a massive rehabilitation work in Bhuj, irregularities in allotment of compensatory plots to beneficiaries have come to light. Information obtained by an activist through RTI Act has revealed that Bhuj Area Development Authority (BHADA) had allotted plots to people who were not eligible under the scheme floated by the government.

‘’We recently came to know that the valuable plots were allotted to wrong people by BHADA for Bhuj which was governed by municipal laws before the earthquake. As a sample, we obtained 10 files of one building named Komal Vihar from BHADA under the RTI Act and found that all 19 beneficiaries of the collapsed building were wrong allottees,’’ said Arvind Gadhavi, Kutch district president of Shiv Sena, showing the evidence (copy with this newspaper).

According to details, the building itself is not in the municipal area of Bhuj as it should be for taking benefit of housing scheme as per the State Resolution of September 11, 2002.

Quoting its earlier resolutions of April 24, 2001, May 4, 2002 and August 30, 2002 which contain various housing packages for the quake-hit towns, this resolution talks of the applicability of “the scheme for allotment of land of re-location sites for tenements of the municipal towns of Bhuj, Anjar, Bhachau and Rapar.’’

It was found that Komal Vihar apartment was in rural area in Mirzapar village on the outskirts of Bhuj. The village has its own gram panchayat which had on April 4, 2002 certified that this building was totally destroyed in the quake and was categorised as G-5 (a category for total destruction).

Before that the same gram panchayat had issued construction permission for the building by its letter of September 27, 1996. It mentions the plot number 15 and 16 of the building on the land bearing survey number 32/1 and 32/2.

Gadhavi said that the building was under construction when the quake hit the district. ‘’Though none of 19 apartment owners in the building physically lived there because it collapsed in the quake, all of them were given alternative plots at the two new location sites in Bhuj municipal area by then BHADA chief executive B K Thanki on the basis of wrong documents,’’ he said.

He said the government scheme requires not only the quake-hit to be resident of Bhuj but he should have a residence in the building at least for one year prior to the quake.

The activist alleged that the proof of residency was cooked up in the case. The main evidence on the basis of which BHADA made the allotment was electricity connections. “A certificate dated May 17, 2003 was obtained from the then GEB’s Bhuj City office which clearly stated that 19 electricity meters were put in the building,’’ he said.

Gadhavi said that when they sent an RTI application to City-I office of the Paschim Gujarat Vij Co Ltd (PGVCL) in July this year, they got a reply in writing that no electricity meter had been put in the building. “The deputy engineer of PGVCL also clearly denied having released any electricity connection to the building and not issuing any electricity bills,’’ he said.
Thanki has been transferred from this district long back. Present BHADA CEO and additional collector of Kutch, H S Mehta, when contacted, declined to make any comment. “I am yet to see any papers of the complaint from the government,’’ he said. Gadhavi claimed that he had sent details of irregularities to the State government.

indianexpress.com :: Look, how BHADA ‘flawed’ in allotting plots to people who were not eligible