Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said land registries done between 2010 and 2016 would be investigated to check the violation of 7-A norms.

Making this announcement during the discussion on Calling Attention Motion regarding irregularities in the registries during the ongoing Budget session of the Assembly, the CM reiterated his commitment towards the zero-tolerance policy adopted against corruption. He said in the case of irregularities in the registries, the government itself took cognizance and got the records of the tehsils checked.

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The CM said violations of 7-A in land registries done between the years 2010 to 2016 in 140 Tehsils and sub-tehsils would be investigated and the entire process would be taken forward at a fast pace.

Section 7-A pertains to the grant of a no-objection certificate (NOC) by the town and country planning department (TCPD) before registration of land in notified urban areas. “Strict action will be taken against anyone found involved in this entire matter. If required, the records up to the year 2004 will also be investigated,” Khattar said.

The CM said the Opposition never shared any authenticated information in the matter. “It is we, who have tightened the noose around those involved in corruption. The opposition can only point fingers and works to mislead the people by talking beyond the facts,” he said.

He said on 13 June 2020, some complaints of irregularities in the registry were received from Gurugram, and the financial commissioner, divisional commissioner, and deputy commissioners were asked on 13 August 2020, to take cognisance of the same and share the complete data of the violation of 7-A norms in their respective tehsils with the state government.

As a result of this, the data of about 60,000 registries has come to the notice of the government. “The tehsildars, sub-tehsildars, patwaris, clerks related to these registries were asked to file their replies within 15 days,” Khattar said. The CM said earlier the work of the registry was done manually, but the state government has introduced an online system in September 2020.

Khattar said given the irregularities in the registry, the state government noticed that only two canals that are 1000 square meters of the land area were used for illegal colonies.

“The words agriculture land and vacant land used under the rule were misused to get the registries done. To keep a check on this, we decided that the limit of two Kanal land should be one acre,” he said.