Action recommended against Huda boss for land acquisition

The chief vigilance officer of Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) has recommended disciplinary action against the Huda administrator Anita Yadav for hasty decision-making and sending wrong land acquisition notices in the acquisition of school land in Pataudi.

Huda had send notices to acquire 1306 sq yards setback land that belonged to the school.

The West Academy School has been functioning since 2000 and the management had obtained no objection certificate (NoC) from Huda for 2.5 acres of land in 2008.

It was on the basis of this NoC that the municipal committee of Pataudi issued an NoC to the institution. In the same year, the school had obtained permission from the director of urban estates and senior town planner of Gurgaon to operate on the land leased for 30 years.

The president of the school, Dr Narender Yadav, alleged that despite having all permissions from government agencies, the Huda served a Section 4 notice to them.

“We filed objections to acquisition notice and took up the matter with Huda officials. Instead of correcting the mistake, they demanded a massive amount of money from us,” Yadav said.

The refusal, however, lead to acquisition notice being served to the school which prompted the management to lodge complaints with the additional chief secretary of Haryana, director general of urban estates and the CM window.

It was after a complaint was filed with the CM window that a probe was initiated on August 10 by the chief vigilance officer of Huda (Gurgaon) TL Satyaprakash.

In his report, Satyaprakash, who is also the Gurgaon deputy commissioner, noted that the land acquisition officer of Huda has in the response mentioned that school land was “inadvertently included to be notified under Section 4 of the Haryana Land Acquisition Act 1894”.

HUDA administrator Anita Yadav said action was taken on the basis of the recommendations made by the joint site inspection committee which comprised land acquisition officer, superintending engineer, DTP and STP. A detailed reply will be given after perusal of records, she said.