Chandigarh May 3 (IANS) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has exposed a scam by arresting seven people, including a revenue official, on charges of receiving compensations during acquisition of land on forged documents in Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) from 2016 to 2020.
A spokesperson for the Vigilance Bureau said the main accused has been identified as Bhupinder Singh, Mukesh Jindal, Shaman Jindal, Mukesh Jindal, Praveen Lata, Vishal Bhandari, Sukhdev Singh, Binder Singh and Bachitar Singh.
He said officials of the Horticultural Department, namely Jaspreet Singh, Vaishali, Dinesh Kumar, Rashmi Arora, Anil Arora and Vishal Bhandari are yet to be arrested.
The spokesperson said during the investigation of a complaint, the Vigilance Bureau found that in 2016 the GMADA published notices in SAS Nagar for acquisition of land pertaining to various villages and issued notifications under Section 4 in 2017 and under Section 19 in 2020.
Property dealer Bhupinder Singh, in connivance with officials and employees of GMADA, the Revenue and Horticulture Departments, along with his colleagues Anil Jindal, Mukesh Jindal and Vikas Bhandari started planting guava orchards on the agricultural land by getting land on general power of attorneys.
The spokesperson said during the probe it was found that the main accused, Bhupinder Singh, has taken compensation of around Rs 24 crore for guava plantations for himself and his family members.
Similarly, Mukesh Jindal has defrauded the government by taking compensation of about Rs 20 crore.
Many other persons have also taken compensation from the government illegally by showing guava orchards in their land.
The Vigilance Bureau said the other accused would be arrested soon.
Senior Superintendent of Police Swapan Sharma told the media that Babbi was in touch with the members of the Ajaib Khan gang lodged in a Sangrur jail with whom he had hatched a conspiracy to eliminate rival gangsters Mani Sheron and Feteh Nagri.
Prabhjot Singh Katri was found murdered early on Sunday morning near his residence in the city of Truro in Nova Scotia. The victim came to Canada from India in 2017 for higher studies. After finishing his studies, he was on a work visa and was driving a cab to earn his livelihood.
Demanding a law to ensure cost based remunerative price for farmers' produce, the RSS affiliate Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) will hold nationwide demonstrations on Wednesday (September 8). The BKS said that the government should give remunerative price to farmers or explain that their demand is wrong.
The joint call to action comes from non-attainment cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Khanna, Patiala and others reeling under poor air quality, and not just during winters.
In his address in the Assembly's special session to mark the commemoration of 400th Prakash Purb of Guru Tegh Bahadur, he stressed that the Sikh faith is distinguished by the tradition of martyrdom to uphold principles and righteousness given to "us by our great Gurus".
A total of 40.8 per cent people have shown satisfaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the five states going to the polls next year, while 41.3 per cent showed dissatisfaction with him, as per the ABP-CVOTER-IANS BATTLE FOR THE STATES - WAVE 1.
