Agartala, Mar 29 (UNI) Senior Congress leader and Tripura MLA Sudip Roybarman has asked for a CBI probe into the alleged land scam of Rs 500 Cr in the state where a large amount of Khas (government) land has been provided to individuals.
Roybarman said he had deposited a query on a huge land scam in Sepahijala district well in time, and it was scheduled to be answered in the house by the Chief Minister Manik Saha, who holds the charge of the revenue department.
But half an hour before the commencement of the session, Roybarman received a letter from the assembly secretariat stating that the revenue department had expressed its inability to answer the query.
According to him, this is a flagrant violation of parliamentary authority guaranteed by the constitution's basic structure.As soon as the day’s session commenced, it drew the CM's attention to the issue, asking how a department under him could defy the state assembly.
The chief minister said that he was not aware of the matter but promised to look into the issue at the earliest.Roybarman alleged, “The huge land scam that has occurred in Sepahijala district involves at least Rs 500 crores, and in this local leaders of BJP ‘Mandals’ a group of advocates of Bishalgarh and two employees of revenue department, are involved, which is still going on.”
They show government land, private ‘Jote’ land, tea garden land, and also land categorized as enemy property as their land by tampering with records in the Tehshil office and also in the computers; they either sell the land or hand them over to the government for acquisition to collect exorbitant prices and compensations.
He also stated that the then DM (Sepahijala) Dr Vishal Kumar had investigated the matter after being flooded with a large number of complaints from private landowners whose land had been grabbed by the vicious land scammers and prepared a detailed report.
He had sent a letter to CM in October 2023, but no action was taken; rather Dr Vishal Kumar was transferred to Agartala before the end of his tenure, Roybarman alleged.
“I demand a CBI inquiry into the entire scam as this is not confined to Sepahijala alone; these scams have happened all over the state and the amount of public money fleeced will be no less than Rs 10,000 Cr by now; the state agencies will only hush up the scam, CBI alone should be entrusted with the investigation at the earliest,” Roybarman added.
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