Author: NitiCentral Staff
Publication: NitiCentral.com
Date: December 2, 2012
URL: http://www.niticentral.com/2012/12/gujarat-governor-should-immediately-resign-2.html

The Gujarat Government on Saturday demanded the resignation of State Governor Kamla Beniwal, saying that alone could make way for a “free and fair inquiry” into an alleged land scam pending against her in Rajasthan.

The demand from the Gujarat Government comes at a time when a metropolitan court in Rajasthan has ordered an inquiry against a so-called cooperative society, of which Kamla Beniwal is an executive member and whose members allegedly benefited from the land scam.

“How can a samiti in which the Governor is an executive member flout the norms of the Cooperative Act and demand the transfer of plots in the name of each member showing its value at Rs 11 lakh as against Rs 3.5 crore of each plot,” State Government spokesperson and Health Minister Jayanarayan Vyas said.

“Now metropolitan court on November 20, 2012 has ordered an inquiry against the samiti members, so it would be fair on the part of the Governor to resign to allow free and fair enquiry,” he said.

He also asked how a Governor can participate in the meetings of a society as executive member and sign minutes and become part of an illegal resolution.

Earlier, in May this year, BJP general secretary Kirit Somaiya, who is also coordinator of the party’s Anti-Corruption Cell, had alleged that the Governor had tried to acquire a huge chunk of land in Rajasthan by submitting false information about herself.

Kamla Beniwal had said she was a farmer and claimed that she had daily spent 14 to 16 hours to develop the leased land and demanded adequate compensation by way of residential and commercial plots in Jaipur city, he said.

As Niti Central had reported earlier this week, a lower court in Jaipur has ordered a police inquiry into allegations of land grab by 18 people, among them Governor of Gujarat Kamla Beniwal, a veteran Congress politician who has been posted at the Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar to raise obstacles for the State Government and create problems for Chief Minister Narendra Modi. She has been fulfilling this task with due diligence.

The court order follows deposition by five witnesses on record. The case is based on a complaint filed by activist Sanjay Agarwal who has accused Beniwal and 17 others of showing land belonging to the Government as their own. Rules were violated to allot this land to the beneficiaries.

There’s total silence over this court order in the mainstream media, especially New Delhi and NCR-based news channels which seize upon the smallest incident and the most inconsequential trivia to berate Modi and his Government. Calumny is manufactured day after day to malign the Chief Minister and slander his administration.

Recall the glee with which media reported every comment of the Supreme Court while ordering a supervised inquiry into some 2002-related cases. Now that another court has ordered an inquiry into the transactions of a Modi detractor, the glee is missing.

Worse, when it comes to reporting facts about those with a political agenda against Modi, the media turns a blind eye.

So here are the facts lest they go entirely unnoticed and unreported.

The Jaipur lower court has instructed the police to investigate the alleged land grab by Beniwal and others. The issue was raised in Parliament and the President was informed about the allegations, but to no avail.

In his petition, Agarwal has named 17 people as having benefited from “illegally grabbing Government land”. Agarwal has informed the court that Beniwal was also involved in the alleged land grab but since she is the Governor of Gujarat, a case could not be filed against her.

Recounting the facts of the matter, lawyer AK Jain says in 1951 the Rajasthan Government gave land for farming on a 20-year-lease. Later, the lease period was extended to 25 years. In 1953, Government allotted 218 acre to one Rajendra Singh and the Kisan Samoohik Krishi Sahkari Samiti Ltd at Jhotwara.

The lease on this land expired in 1978, that is, 25 years after its allotment, and as per the agreement, ownership of the land stood transferred to the Government. The Samiti’s original members were elbowed out and others took over; they also manipulated rules to distribute the land among themselves. One of the beneficiaries, according to the complainant, was Beniwal.

The complainant has alleged that the Government acquired 221 bighas from the original 218 acre for the Kardhani and Prithviraj Nagar plans on October 6, 1999. Since the land already stood transferred to the Government in 1978, the question of compensating anybody did not arise.

Yet, a compensation of 15 per cent of the ‘developed land’ in lieu of the land that had been acquired was provided for. It is alleged that this was done to benefit Beniwal and the other accused people.