Decoding the alleged Bhatgaon village land acquisition irregularities

LUCKNOW Alleged irregularities in acquisition of land at Bhatgaon village for setting up of the state-of-the-art BrahMos missile production facility in Lucknow reportedly included payment of compensation on the basis of fake lease papers of 1985 and the transfer of government land to allottees, people in the know of things claimed.

The anomalies led to a revenue loss to the state government and suspended senior IAS officer Abhishek Prakash, who was the Lucknow district magistrate at the time, is under the lens again over the issue.

The Uttar Pradesh government had allotted the land to BrahMos Aerospace in Bhatgaon in the Lucknow node of UP’s Defence Corridor for its next generation missile project in 2021.

The facility was established to roll out the BrahMos Next Generation (BrahMos-NG) missiles, making UP an aerospace and defence hub, putting Lucknow prominently on the world map.

“In 2021, on the basis of fake lease papers of 1985, compensation claims of the alleged allottees and their heirs, as well as those who had bought land from them were accepted by the administration in Bhatgaon village,” said a revenue department officer who did not wish to be named.

“Government land was also transferred to the allottees to claim compensation,” he added.

The permission for sale of land belonging to Scheduled Castes was given illegally. The people whose names were not registered in land records got compensation, he said.

The then Revenue Board chairman Rajneesh Dubey and the then Kanpur divisional commissioner Amit Gupta had probed irregularities and had submitted a report to the state government in July 2024 alleging irregularities in acquisition of the land and payment of compensation to the farmers. The probe committee detected that some people close to the officers purchased the land at a lower rate in violation of the rules to claim compensation.

The committee, in its report, alleged that the then Lucknow district magistrate, who was the chairman of the purchase committee, and the Sarojini Nagar tehsildar, who was member-secretary, did not discharge their duties according to the rules and this led to irregularities in payment of compensation and loss of revenue to the state exchequer.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered suspension of senior IAS officer and Invest UP CEO Abhishek Prakash on Thursday (March 20) on the charge of allegedly seeking a bribe through a middleman for approving a solar power plant project.

Now, the alleged irregularities in the acquisition of land for defence corridor in Bhatgaon village is likely to pave the way for further action against Prakash as well as 16 district administration and revenue officers involved in acquisition of land.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has given nod for action against the officers involved in the matter. The report has been sent to the appointment department, revenue department, the district magistrate and divisional commissioner Lucknow for further action.