BHOPAL: Nearly 1,000 families in housing societies at Shahpura, Jaatkhedi, Narela Shankari and other areas are looking expectantly towards the district administration for possession of their own land.
They have been struggling to get their land back from the clutches of the mafia for over three decades. The recent action in the Kabadkhana area where the district administration imposed a curfew for granting possession of land to a trust has given them fresh hope.
Their plots have been illegally sold by chairpersons of their housing societies in connivance with the land mafia to other persons without the consent of the owners and, now, the residents are running from pillar to post for justice. These residents had bought their plots in the Sarwodaya Housing Society and Rohit Housing Society along with others.
They allege that the officials of the cooperative department are hand-in-glove with the accused and that is why their pleas are either not heard, or they are not granted possession of their land despite orders from cooperative societies. Most of the plots were bought before 1990, but the builders, with the help of the mafia, sold the land to others without even informing them.
Gaurav Housing Society: Vivek Dikshit, a resident of Gaurav Housing Society, said his father and 44 others had bought a plot measuring 2,400 square feet in the housing society in 1982, but the builder had sold half of the land. Also, the other half had not been granted to them despite orders from the cooperative department, he said. Dikshit said that, when the cooperative department was approached, they ordered an inquiry. But, even after the report came out in their favour, they could not get possession of the land.
Rohit Housing Society: Preeti Pushpad, a resident of Vallabh Nagar, said they had bought a plot of land in Rohit Housing Society in 2000, but they were yet to get possession as the land had been sold to someone else. She said they wanted the government to intervene as the cooperative commissioner had ruled in their favour. But, because of the mafia nexus active in the societies, they were yet to live there. She said alleged land mafioso Ghanshyam Singh Rajpoot had political connections and she doubted that there would be justice.
Complainant JK Jain, who had bought a plot in Rohit Housing Society, said the matter had been investigated by the cooperative officials, but the plot could not be handed over to them. He said the same Rajpoot faced several FIRs in similar frauds in other housing societies, but the government was not taking cognizance of the matter.
