The shocking incident came to light when a resident of Palia Haider in Hatod tehsil, 25 kilometer away from Indore, had gone to the government office to sell his land in the village. “I was surprised to learn that our village, which was there for ages, was no longer there in government land record,” Sharma said. On this cue RTI activist Rajendra K Gupta traced the missing village of 400- odd houses by filing an RTI. It emerged in the enquiry that officials of registrar office in Indore had removed the entire village from land records to benefit a few builders.

Before the guideline rate for 2014-15 was announced, lands of patwari halka no. 41 and khasra number 677/1, 677/5, 677/9 and 678/1 went missing from land records. Soon the entire village vanished into thin air. The exercise was meant to ensure that the rate did not surge upward, thus going contrary to the interests of the builders. Government suffered loss of revenue by way of sale and purchase of the land. It suffered revenue loss in the form of stamp duty and registry fee. Land records reveal that after the disappearance of the village, few builders, who were developing colonies and townships, sold hundreds of plots and houses on stamp papers without proper registry.

An investigation by district administration officials is under way to find out staff involved and fix responsibility, and to set the land records right.

Read More at – TOI
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