The Times of India          04.10.2010

 The recent Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment on Nathupur may have exposed the nexus between government and private real estate majors but there is a third party too that benefits from such deals. It is the gram panchayat.

According to a senior official of the revenue department, gram panchayats involvement in such deals has become more obvious after private players started showing interest in village lands. With the land price in Gurgaon and adjoining areas hitting the roof, private real estate developers are trying to get village land at a low price by colluding with the panchayat head and other key members, he added.

Many gram panchayats own huge chunks of land outside the villages, and after the Municipal Corporation emergence many such panchayats are worried that the civic body might just take the land from them.
Private players are trying to exploit this situation, said a senior official in the district administration.

After identifying a patch of panchayat land, a private developer approaches the deputy commissioner (DC) of the district. The developer tries to convince the gram panchayat to let go of the land. After convincing its head and key members, it makes the panchayat pass a resolution that the said land can be sold to a private party, the official told TOI.

A local property dealer, who is aware of the entire exercise, said private players normally bribe panchayat members to get the land at a lower price. The DC constitutes a committee of senior officials to look into the sale of the land. Based on the committees recommendation, a decision is taken, said another revenue department official.

Ideally, according to the dealer, the administration should check whether a particular patch of panchayat land should be sold at prevailing property price or at the government fixed circle rate with interest over and above it.

Here bureaucrats play the big game and try to help the private player in getting the land at low price, a highly-placed source said. In fact, a nexus of this kind had rocked the district administration recently in Gurgaon. A real estate major had moved a plan to buy over 100 acres land in Palri. The district administration was reportedly pushing for the sale of land at a lower price but an objection by some junior officers foiled the purchase.