Many realtors who own panchayat lands are scared of legal action, so they are rushing to deposit money with the government.
A total of 65 developers (nearly 50 percent) have applied to the government to deposit money for the land inside their projects, according to officials of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayats.
According to K Sivaprasad, the matter had been referred to the districts following the applications.
It would be up to the DCs to determine the land’s price through committees. As per the district committees’ price determination, developers will pay.
As a result, the DCs will analyze and fix the price based on the market rate or the rate at which the land was registered in the district concerned during the past year.
In spite of the fact that large tracts of panchayat lands fell within their projects, these developers did not pay a single penny to the government.
The Tribune reported on December 1 that the department had been unable to recover money from realtors in Mohali, Patiala, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Bathinda for 80 acres of panchayat land worth Rs 500 crore. Over a decade has passed since developers acquired the land.
The department had been given three months to recover the money from them by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, the Enforcement Directorate was also investigating the matter.
