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.
India is in constant touch with the representatives of Afghan Sikh and Hindu communities, said the Ministry of External Affairs on Monday asserting that the country will facilitate repatriation to India of those who wish to leave Afghanistan.
Fearing attacks on the Indian community working with private companies in Afghanistan, the intelligence agencies have sent out alerts to them to be ready to be transported back to the country.
In the wake of the Taliban taking full control in Afghanistan, experts have cautioned the Indian security agencies to increase vigil on the international border with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.
Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall activity is also very likely over Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Vidarbha during the next five days.
Almost a year after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case in connection with the blast at a Kabul gurdwara in which 27 people, including an Indian Sikh was killed, a team of anti-terror probe agency was yet to visit the country, and now with the Taliban takeover, this has been "delayed indefinitely".
Rahul Gandhi on Friday released a video statement slamming Twitter for blocking his account and alleged that Twitter was taking sides in the politics of the country.
