Chhattisgarh’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged massive corruption occurred in the Bharatmala Project in the state which tunes up to Rs 300 crores.
While addressing a press conference at Raipur’s BJP office on Saturday, former Agriculture Minister Chandrashekhar Sahu and Vice President of Kishan Morcha Gaurishankar Shrivas jointly levelled serious allegations of siphoning of funds in the mega road construction of the Bharatmala project.
Sahu alleged that the Nexus of corrupt government officials, compensation mafia, land mafia and some Congress leaders hand-in-glove executed a mega scam of Rs 300 crores in Abhanpur Tehsil of Raipur in the name of implementation of the Bharatmala project.
"We have collected the evidence related to this mega scam, how the nexus of corrupt government officers and land mafia and patronage from Baghel government have defrauded the central government money by abruptly changing the land use," Sahu said. By manipulating the data, the lands were acquired at an inflated rate, alleged the Minister.
The lands which were not even notified for the project were shown fit for land acquisition even the grasslands, and agriculture land and government lands status and the land uses were changed forging the documents.
The land on which the Union government has to pay Rs 1 crore as a part of compensation, the Central government paid for such a land Rs 18 crores, 18 times more than the genuine price, Sahu further alleged.
The extra money again went to the pockets of the government officials. Thus, we demand an impartial probe by the Central Vigilance Agency so that all the people involved in it will be arrested and punished, Kisan Morcha president Gaurishankar Shrivas said.
This Rs 300 crore scam is merely the tip of the iceberg, as the project was extended in other districts of the state. Therefore, we demand a Higher level probe. A Central level agency must investigate the scam. We have planned to hand over all the evidence to the Governor and put the matter before Union Minister Gadkari, Sahu added.
If an impartial probe is carried out, land Mafia-like Khanuja and his patron will be found languishing in jail, the former agriculture minister added.
Congress party reacted strongly over the allegations of mega corruption in the Bharatmala project in the state and said, 'BJP intentionally wants to defame the Congress government.'
Congress spokesperson Dhananjay Singh Thakur said that government lands of around 1,600 people were acquired for the project.
As far as distribution of compensation amount is concerned, the lands were acquired as per the land acquisition Act 2013 which has the provision of four times compensation on the land on the contemporary land rate.
Till the time Rs 358 crore was only distributed and the BJP visualized it as a Rs 1,000 crore mega scam. I suggest they get their vision and facts corrected first, the Congress spokesperson reacted.
