NH211: Government agencies involved in distribution of land compensation of Rs 140 cr on radar

Aurangabad, Oct 27:

The government offices like Competent Authority of Land Acquisition (CALA), National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), District Administration, Land Record and Town Planning have come under the radar of suspicion in connection with the distribution of compensation of Rs 140 crore against the land acquisition in four districts of Marathwada for the construction of NH 211 Highway.

Meanwhile, the government agencies are claiming that they had disbursed the compensations after getting final approval of the then district collector (in each district) to the land-owners in Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Beed and Jalna districts.

It may be noted that six collectors were transferred in Aurangabad during 2011 and 2020. They are Kunal Kumar, Vikram Kumar, Virendra Singh, Nidhi Pandey, N K Ram and Uday Chaudhary. The name of the present collector is Sunil Chavan. The process of land acquisition for the highway was implemented during the regime of Kunal Kumar and N K Ram.

In Osmanabad district, five collectors had been transferred during the above period. They were Pravin Gedam, K H Nagargoje, Prashant Narnaware, Radhakrishna Game and Deepa Mudhod. The name of the present collector is Kaustubh Divegaonkar. The land acquisition took place during the regime of Nagargoje, Narnaware and Game.

In Beed district, S J Koche, S M Kendrekar, N K Ram, M D Sinh, Astik Kumar Pandey and Ajit Kumbhar (six collectors) got transferred during the above period. The name of the present collector is Rahul Rekhawar. The land acquisition process was done during the period of Koche, Kendrekar, Ram and Sinh.

In Jalna district, the collectors Vilas Thakur, Tukaram Munde, Shyam Deshpande and Shivaji Jondhale got transferred during the above period. The name of the present collector is Ravindra Binwade. Of which, the acquisition took place during the period of Munde, Deshpande and Jondhale.

The total cost of NH 211 Highway is of Rs 7,000 crore including land compensation. The total length of the highway road is 250 km. Of the total cost, Rs 3,500 crore is for Outram Ghat. The union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) approved the project in 2011. Meanwhile, the road expansion from Aurangabad to Dhule has not gained momentum.

The collectorate of each district gave the responsibility of disbursing the compensation to the sub-divisional officer (SDO, Land Acquisition). Accordingly, the SDO''s in the above four districts had paid the compensation in phases from 2011 to 2018.

Accordingly, a demand has been geared up to conduct a thorough inquiry against all government agencies involved in the highway and all the SDOs for involvement in paying the compensation. It is alleged that faraway lands had been shown located close to the proposed highway and crores of rupees are embezzled under the aegis of land compensation.