Mutation of part of Vadra's Bikaner land cancelled

The Rajasthan Government has cancelled mutation of a part of land purchased by Robert Vadra's company Skylight Hospitality Private Limited in Bikaner district on the grounds that it was bought from fake buyers.

The cancelled land spreads into 360 hectares. It follows an inquiry carried out by the Bikaner administration. The inquiry points out that the 16 sellers who sold land to Vadra in 2010 were allotted land in Gajner and Kolayat tehsils as part of compensation of those displaced for Mahajan Firing Range.

                                   

Most of the land that Vadra bought in Bikaner has been sold and resold and part of what he bought to was sold and resold many times in the past.

Vadra earned an estimated Rs.20 crore rupees by buying land cheap in area that was to become hub of solar energy plants and is accused of being beneficiary of insider trading by being tipped off about solar policy of centre before it was announced.

The decision to cancel mutation was taken by the collector Bikaner. It is not yet known if entire 360 hectare is with Skylight Hospitality at present.

It is also not yet known if original allottees of land as displaces were fake or the buyers from whom Vadra bought were the original allottees or those who bought it further.

Some land owned by reserved categories which could not have been sold to general categories has also exchanged hands and is under scanner too.

DELAYED ACTION:

The administration is still carrying on its investigations in Vadra's land deeds as promised by BJP in its election manifesto, though BJP government was slow in doing it. A quick action by the Haryana government seems to have made the Vasundhara Raje government act tough too.

Vadra is also accused of violating land ceiling act as applied in that region by being owner of land in excess by being director in more than one company but government hasn't been able to nail him on this account yet.

Besides Vadra, a number of other businessmen, including one of his neighbours who is also in the same business as he was in his hometown Moradabad, have bought large tracts of land in Bikaner.

Many original allottees of land have been selling land to others too who include prominent local politicians and businessmen from Punjab and Haryana in the past.

The land here was barren and dirt cheap until solar companies found the region as best suited for solar energy generation.