Land acquisition for Ferozepur road:Panel formed to look into compensation awarded to minister Rana Sodhi family

The matter is six-decade-old and goes back to 1962.

Punjab government has constituted a sub-committee to look into the compensation awarded to cabinet minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi and his brother Guru Hardeep Singh in 2014 for their land at Mohan ke Attarh village, Ferozepur, that was acquired for already constructed Gur Har Sahai– Sadik road in 2012.

The state government had acquired 55 kanal and 6 marla land of Rana Gurmit Singh and 38 kanal of Jasdeep Sodhi, son of Hardeep Singh, in 2012 and were awarded compensation. Later, cabinet minister and his brother Guru Hardeep Singh moved the district and sessions court, Ferozepur, in 2014 seeking compensation as per the new land acquisition Act which came into force on January 1, 2014. The district court in its order in 2015 said the claimants are entitled to compensation as per the provisions of this new Act as the reimbursement was made to them after the new Act came into the force. Punjab and Haryana high court and Supreme Court had also upheld district court’s order.

The notification (copy of which is with Hindustan Times) mentions that it has been decided to examine the whole record in the matter of SLP - 28012/2018 and 28013/2018 filed by Guru Gurmit Singh and Guru Hardeep Singh. The sub-committee will look into all aspects, revenue as well as legal, of the case and submit its report along with recommendations within one week.

The matter is six-decade-old and goes back to 1962. The PWD sources privy to the development claimed that the government move came after the public works department (PWD) traced some revenue records related to land acquired in 2012 revealing that the land in question was also acquired in 1962, but then mutation of the land was not executed for transferring it from minister’s family to the state government.

“We have been tracing the compensation granted to claimants in 1962 to check whether the compensation was awarded to the minister’s family or not,” claimed the officials’ sources.

The committee was formed by principal secretary, public works department (PWD), Vikas Pratap, under PWD (buildings & roads) special secretary, director consolidation-cum-director land records, land acquisition officer PWD (B&R), Jalandhar, district revenue officer, Ferozepur and executive engineer, construction division No -1, PWD (B&R), Ferozepur.

Vikas Pratap said that he can only comment on the matter after checking the records. PWD minister Vijay Inder Singla refused to comment on it while cabinet minister Rana Sodhi said that he has no information about the committee formed by the state government. Sodhi said the case was already won in the Supreme Court. When asked about whether the same land was acquired in 1962 or not, Rana said that if the department has some facts then they should produce it in the court as it is a legal matter and could only be decided by the court.