Bye Bye 2012

Year 2012 was most tough year of my life, seen roller coaster with difficulty angle of 360 degree, may god do justice with India









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Haryana Losing Thousands Crores by Not Publishing Gazette Notification for Controlled Area in Jhajjar District

Chandigarh (I-Haryana News): Haryana Government has lost thousands Crores Rupees Revenue and is still losing because of not publishing deliberately, the government notification to declare Luhari Village land (a village of Jhajjar situated adjacent to Gurgaon), a controlled area under the Punjab Scheduled road Act 1963 for last 12 months by The Town and country Planning Department even after approval of Chief Minister Office.

Intelligent Haryana News Research team investigated and analyzed the information received under Right to information Act and from its sources regarding huge loss to public exchequer by not publishing government notification for last 12 months for best reasons known to senior Bureaucrats heading the most lucrative department of present Haryana Government,” The Town and country Planning Department”.

Copies of information with IHN research team revealed that even after all approvals and permissions from top level, Chief Minister Office to the state law department the notification to declare Luhari Village land as a controlled area is being withheld by department since December 14, 2011 to till date.

Due to this act of omissions committed by then Director General of Town and country planning department, Mr. T C Gupta, IAS and his team has caused loss of thousands cores of rupees to the state exchequer as the village Luhari has around five thousand acres land under its jurisdiction, which as per this Haryana government gazette notification was to be notified as controlled area and could fetch license fee, conversion fee and Change in land use fee amounting over thousands crore to public exchequer.

Land Details
District	झज्जर		Tehsil	झज्जर
Village	लुहारी		Jamabandi	2005-2006
Land Detail
Total Patti		5	Total Khasras	5385
Total Kanal		31329	Total Marla	16

                                                Source: www.jamabandi.nic.in

The private real estate companies like the Oris Infrastructure Private Limited, Bluestar Buildcon Private Limited and some others have purchased huge chunk of Land in Village by taking advantage given by Town and country planning department.

These companies are developing private colonies and big warehouses by evading license fee, conversion fee and Change in land use fee amounting over thousands crores and many more are in queue to join this Public exchequer loot offer by the department whose primary job is to plan town and country side of Haryana.

The story of Public Money loot begins with Meeting of Mr. Harish Mehta, Director of Dutch Haryana Business Consortium with then Director General, Town and country Planning Department, Mr. T C Gupta on April 21, 2011 which reveals the true tale of working of Town and country planning department.

Mr. Harish Mehta, Director (India Affairs) of Dutch Haryana Business Consortium, a company who had remained in news for developing 500 acres European Technology Park in eco sensitive zone of Aravali Hills courtesy Haryana State Industrial Infrastructure Development had met then Director General, and submitted his written proposal for developing a residential project of 300 acres in Village Luhari. 

After receiving proposal from Mr. Harish Mehta, Mr. Gupta sought status of land in question. The department officers intimated Director General (TCP) that the land on which Mr. Mehta desired to develop a residential project falls under No Objection Certificate zone (means person requires no permission from government to develop the area).

On May 23, 2011, Chief Coordination Planner (NCR) ordered telephonically, District Town Planner, Jhajjar to send a proposal to declare Village Lohari land a controlled area immediately.

In Response to above, Senior Town Planner (Rohtak) vide his official letter number 1746 dated 30/06/2011 recommended and sent proposal prepared by DTP Jhajjar regarding declaration of Village Luhari land as controlled area which was examined at Director General office for more than one month.

On August 11, 2011, CCP (NCR) Mr. BBL Kaushik opined on proposal that, “As per proposal received from DTP Jhajjar the proposed controlled area (village Luhari controlled area) is located near the boundary of district Gurgaon on Gurgaon-Pataudi Road. The area is more prone to unauthorized constructions. Therefore, looking its location and nearness to Gurgaon if agree the controlled area proposal along with schedule of boundary (Hindi and English version) submitted for obtaining in-principle approval of the Government Please.”

After reviewing the opinion of his CCP (NCR) for 19 days then Director General Mr. T C Gupta agreed on proposal to declare entire revenue estate of village Luhari as controlled area and signed the proposal, and sent the file to the then Financial Commissioner, Mr. Sandeep Singh Dhillon to get government in-principle approval, who after three days of receiving the proposal, sent file to Rao Dan Singh, Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Town and Country Planning & Education).

Rao Dan Singh, who is considered close to Chief Minister, took 16 days to send file to Chief Minister Office, where it was got Chief Minister’s Approval (Mr. Chattar Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, signed on behalf of CM) in just two days, as they were waiting for this?

Then Director General Office asked DTP Jhajjar to send original draft of controlled area Luhari which it had received by November 23, 2011, and draft proposal was sent to Office of Legal Rememberer and Secretary, Law department for vetting through office of Financial Commissioner Office on November 28, 2011.

The Law department vetted the draft notification under sub section(1) of section 4 of the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled  Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development Act 1963(Punjab Act 41 of 1963),(Hindi and English) submitted by Town and Country planning department, and sent back the draft notification to department for further necessary action on December 2, 2011.

The Journey of declaring village Luhari Land as controlled area, which had started with proposal of Mr. Harish Mehta of Dutch Haryana Business Consortium (DHBC) to develop a Residential Project in Village Luhari, seem to be completed but all of sudden something extraordinary has happened which lured or forced then Director General Mr. T C Gupta to withheld the approved file which was ready for publication by controller Printing and Stationary Department, Haryana on 17.12.2011,Mr. Gupta instead of ordering printing of notification in government gazette  put query on file by Asking  the percentage of control area in the district after addition of this new control area, which he should have asked before taking approval from government( Chief Minister Office). 

Sensing the hostile mood of her boss the then DTP (NCR) Mrs. Gurmeet Kaur asked DTP Jhajjar to send information sought by Mr. Gupta immediately.

As soon as DTP (NCR) sought information asked by DGTCP the whole department including STP (Rohtak) and DTP Jhajjar who were earlier wholeheartedly working for converting the village Luhari land as controlled area took U-turn and started working to create hurdles in executing the same by lamenting shortage of staff due to which they could not monitor Jhajjar district controlled area.

When IHN Research Team visited Luhari village to gauge the field reality of area under question, the team found huge construction activities in area.

Village Luhari Sarpanch, Mr.Bir Singh while taking to IHN team expressed his ignorance about the move of District Town Planner to declare his Village entire land as a controlled area, which is very strange and serious lapse in part of Town and country planning department that did not thought to consult Village panchayat whose entire land it was going to declare as controlled.

Mr. Ravi Sharma, a prominent lawyer, Punjab and Haryana High Court while taking to IHN stated that article 243D of constitution of India makes mandatory role of Panchayats and PRIs representatives in district planning, and not involving them while planning for their own village is a gross violation of Constitution of India.

Further, investigation revealed that Town and country planning department had not only kept the move to declare Luhari village as controlled area secret from Village Sarpanch but also from deputy commissioner of Jhajjar , who while writing D O number 87/PA dated 13/2/2012 to then Financial commissioner (Town and Country planning Department), Mr. Sandeep Singh Dhillon(Instead of Director General) to approve the proposal of District Town Planner, Jhajjar dully recommended by Senior Town Planner, Rohtak to declare land of Village Dulina,Khiloi Khass, Shojipur and Aurangpur vide memo number 2933 dated 15.12.2011 did not mentioned the proposal of Village Luhari land which was pending with DGTCP office earlier than mentioned above villages situated on State Highway number 15A. 

Last not the least a democratic government is a tool for Public welfare and Public exchequer is source for doing the same, every part and parcel of a democratically elected government should work in accordance to law established while spending or earning public exchequer in public interest. But this basic fundamental of a welfare state is not being followed by Government of Haryana, as procedures established have been often bent to favour someone Special at the huge cost of several crores rupee to public exchequer.

Apart from huge loss to public exchequer, the IHN research raises serious question over the manner in which then director and his team used Chief Minister Office and Law department as their rubber stamp to get Approval of their half baked proposal to declare Luhari village land as controlled area and set aside their approval like waste papers once their motive fulfilled. 

This is also a mockery of present Indian democratic form governance and Constitution of India rightly pointed out by High Court lawyer Mr. Ravi Sharma.

In Part-II of this Research News, IHN will Publish why and how the Town and Country Planning Department, Haryana is withholding publication of Government notification to declare Luhari Village as a controlled area for one year along with of Village Dulina, Khiloi Khass, Shojipur and Aurangpur and who are the main beneficiaries of these acts of omissions committed by the department.

Source :Intelligent Haryana News

Haryana Forest Development Corporation’s Cash Developing Whom?

Chandigarh (I-Haryana News): Haryana Forest Development Corporation, a company formed by Government of Haryana in December 1989, which was initially formed with one of the objects to increase the financial status of farming and labour community by promoting development of forest based and allied industries, has now turned into milking cow to improve the financial health of Forests officers posted in this company, as this Haryana Government owned company does most of its business transactions in cash.

The copies of records with IHN establish that their officers are openly minting money by preparing fake and forged bills. In some cases, payment has been made against quotation/ estimates also, instead of proper bills from registered VAT/ Service Tax dealers.  

Following Table shows Cash transactions as compare to total expenditure incurred by corporation w.e.f 2009-2012:

Year	Total Expenditure in Lacs	Cash Expenditure in Lacs
2009-10	3098.36	1400
2010-11	3909.50	1100
2011-12	5008.60	1300

                                                                              Based on information at www.hfdc.gov.in & ABCNIS Research

Intelligent Haryana News Research Team has found that more than 35 projects are being executed by HFDC Regional Office Gurgaon. Out the same, study of two projects based at Deolali at Nasik and Chandimandir at Panchkula, was done. It was analyzed that majority of projects bills were fabricated by HFDC Regional Office Gurgaon (copies of these are with IHN), which relate to arboriculture/ landscaping and Earth filling works.   All these two works were carried out by HFDC in Jurisdiction of Indian Army area.

The bills submitted by two Nasik based contractors, those who were shown aboriculture/ landscaping and worked in 2009 in Deolali (Nasik) in Cantonment area and paid cash of over Rs.22 lacs, all bills submitted by them do not have bill number, date and signature of contractors and apparently prepared in same handwriting and style which could raise eye brow of any layman on first sight.

The HFDC officers responsible to make payments to these dubious contractors while giving them cash payments of over Rs.22 lacs, ignoring Rs.20000/- limit as per Income Tax Act, also did not charged service tax on bills amount and further as work allotted to said contractors involved 60 labourers who were paid wage of Rs.448000/- without obeying the obligations under Employees Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Act, 1952, which entails punishment of imprisonment of three years of defaulting employer (HFDC).

There are many bills on record, which are issued by those firms which never existed. In one of the Pinjore based contactor Mr. Shyam of S L Electrical, who was paid Rs.5.38 lacs, in cash for electrical work done in Chandimandir military area, the bills clearly indicate violation of VAT, Service Tax and Work Contract Tax provisions, which again mark a question on the validity of the said bills. When IHN talked to contactor Mr. Shyam, proprietor of so called S L Electrical Works over his mobile number and he fully expressed his ignorance regarding bill submitted and confirmed that he does not has shop at address mentioned in bill submitted. It seems that the Corporation has hired some specialized person for preparation of so called bills and quotations etc. as most of the bills are in same handwriting and contents of bills are also same.

Further, IHN investigation revealed that HFDC’s Kurukshetra Regional Office proved more intelligent than Gurgaon where they used window dressing methods to flout Income Tax provisions, by getting the bills of works done/ procurement by breaking the same into amounts below Rs.20000/-, along with forged quotations from same persons with each bill.

As per information with IHN, HFDC’s turnover since 2000-01 is as under which consist of sale of trees /wood, barbed wire, polythene bags, bank interests etc. till 2008 and w.e.f. 2009 included landscaping and other related jobs/ projects, which have contributed an average of 15 percent of total turnover :

Year	Turnover (Rs. In Lac)	Sales by Projects	Percent
2000-01	1865.79	-	-
2001-02	1404.08	-	-
2002-03	1243.24	-	-
2003-04	1363.75	-	-
2004-05	1193.88	-	-
2005-06	1449.66	-	-
2006-07	2074.98	-	-
2007-08	1932.39	-	-
2008-09	3146.06	93.26	02.96
2009-10	3619.26	434.01	11.99
2010-11	4566.66	849.11	18.59
2011-12	5577.81	Not Available	Not Available

                                                                                 Source: www.hdfc.gov.in and ABCNIS Research

As mentioned above Corporation in 2009 had started taking arboriculture/ landscaping projects works, that too mostly out of Haryana, and also the game of cash transactions started and it is very strange that the company which has its headquarter in Panchkula has deputed only Gurgaon Regional Office to undertake the projects works on behalf of HFDC.

In most of vendors  from whom procurement/services have been hired they don’t have VAT /Service tax registration from respective department. In contrary to claim by department on its Website that they have paid 104 crores sale tax/VAT (source www.hfdc.gov.in), they have hidden the fact of theft of Vat/service tax/ Work Contract Tax, in crores of Rupees with connivance/ involvement  of officers of Corporation, thereby generating loss of revenue to Haryana and other State Governments and Centre.

On one hand, Government of India is emphasizing on cutting of cash transactions by way of amendments in Income Tax Act and other statutory laws, and also by making Permanent Account Number and ADHAR compulsory, whereas on the other hand corporation seems to be in hurry in distributing huge cash by way of expenditure.

When IHN Asked Mr. Ravi Sharma, a prominent lawyer in Punjab and Haryana High Court about large scale cash payments made by HFDC ignoring government and income tax laws, he categorically stated that as per section 40A (3) w.e.f 2009-10, where the assessee incurs any expenditure in respect of which a payment or aggregate of payments made to a person in a day, otherwise than account payee cheque or account payee bank draft, exceeds Rs 20000, no deduction shall be allowed in respect of such expenditure.”

The above mentioned fake fabrications of bills and quotations etc are only the few glimpses of sea of deliberately errors committed by HFDC officers to siphon money into their pockets. If any investigating agency will conduct thorough investigation into these fake fabrications of bills, scandal of crores of rupees would come out.  

When IHN research Team tried to know the version of Haryana Forests Minister, Capt. Ajay Singh Yadav about HFDC huge cash business transactions on his Mobile Number 09896422122, he categorically stated that we should talk to officers concerned and expressed his ignorance on the issue.

Further, when IHN talked to Mr. Subhash Chander Yadav, a Haryana Forests Services officer posted in Gurgaon as General Manager on his mobile number 09416415504 and asked him about cash transactions made by his office while doing arboriculture/ landscaping works at Deolali (Nasik) and Chandimandir (Panchkula), he refused to share anything about the issue and threatened IHN’s senior Journalist and disconnected the phone. It is pertinent to mention here that Mr. Yadav is holding the said charge for last many years except short term when he was posted in Mewat and again returned to cash milking position of HFDC, as he is said to be close to a Haryana Minister from Ahirwal region.

Further, the company has done projects of over Rs 25 crores since 2008 to 2012 in Regional Office Gurgaon and has suffered huge loss due to above mentioned fabrication in execution of projects works by company officers.

Last not the least, this open defying of statutory and government provisions by Haryana Forests Development Corporation while carrying its business, in public eyes, raises question mark over existing audit mechanism to keep transparency in working of public as well as private sector companies.

It is a point of question as to how various internal, external Government, statutory auditing and non auditing bodies have failed to point out these scams and serious lapses in business transactions, in their reports for all these years.

After prima facie investigation and inputs received from internal sources and by IHN Field team spread all over Haryana, it has been decided that soon IHN would publish detailed research report on entire working of HFDC on Financial & Non Financial scams.

Content Source: Intelligent Haryana News

Dinesh Singh Rawat Says;

Forests and mining are two major avenues for government officers  to loot public as well s nature exchequer, which they are looting since 1947 with conveyance with Indian political bosses uninterrupted.

This Research  report by Intelligent Haryana News Team really deserves great appricition, I salute IHN team for this research report.