In a major development, the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) has been hit with Rs 76 crore scam i.e. loss to the state exchequer. The scam pertains to the Fake NOCs that were issued to at least 340 houses in unapproved or illegal colonies. In the PUDA Scam, two state officers i.e. Senior Assistants have been suspended. One official has been accused of issuing NOCs using fake diary numbers. Major Amit Sareen, ADC (UD) and Additional Chief Administrator of Amritsar Development Authority, talking to True Scoop confirmed, "We have flagged 340 such documents. Due to this, people made registries, and even illegal colonies were made which made huge losses to the Government. The government did not get any license fee."
PUDA Amritsar Scam Explained
After October 2022 the procedure of issuing NOC was made online. Before this, the procedure was offline. If any citizen needs a No Objection Certificate (NOC) they used to apply for it with application. NOCs are needed for unapproved colonies. The unapproved or illegal colonies are those who never took a Promoter Certificate from PUDA or the Housing Department but still developed a colony. The unauthorized colony makers do not pay any money to the Government that it gets from license fees or EDC charges.
The property dealers sold illegal colonies. Some people were not aware that the colonies were not PUDA-approved. After they bought the plot and applied for the registry to make their house, the Tehsildars refused it saying the colony was unapproved.
A 2018 policy came into effect. The policy said that the colonies that were unapproved or illegal or people who did not come for regularisation were asked to make regularise it on a compound basis by giving money to the Government. In this way, the department can give the NOC and hence, people can make their registry. The 2018 policy said that NOC would be granted to colonies that have 30-feet roads, agreement between two people has been made.
The Government then started giving NOCs according to the 2018 policy. PUDA used to release NOC. From 2018 to 2022, NOCs were issued manually. However, in October 2022, the system changed to online. The application process was online, the file moves forward online going through JE, TP, and DPP and finally, it reaches ACA i.e. Additional Chief Administrator of PUDA.
"We were getting complaints that NOCs are still being issued manually. Those NOCs were fake, they did not have any numbers. Suppose you had been issued a provisional NOC before 2018, you made a provisional registry, and have now come for the final NOC. We used to issue the NOC in such cases that it was a manual system before 2022,' added Amit Sareen.
In the case of fake NOCs, there are no provisional NOCs. No diary number or any file is available. No payment is made to the administration. On one single number NOCs are issued to two to three persons.
Like in a genuine case- a NOC has been issued to Ram Kumar on one number (just for example). On the same number, NOC has been issued to another person.
As per sources, a total of Rs 30 lakh is charged for the license fee for 1 acre of land of the colony. If anyone makes a colony on 3 or 4 acres then approx Rs 2 crore loss per colony has been suffered by the Government.
"These 340 flagged documents are houses of people. Further in-depth investigation will reveal the houses in a number of colonies, said Amit Sareen.
Till now, the investigation has revealed that there are a total of 38 illegal or unapproved colonies. If calculated the entire amount, the loss to the state ex-chequer amounts to Rs 76 crore. Since the investigation is ongoing, it is expected that the amount may exceed Rs 100 crore. For the unversed, the government earns via license fees and external development charges. The fake NOCs were issued just to profit the property dealers and the colonizers not the public.
If following a proper channel, the entire cost may amount to Rs 2 to 3 crore. However, by bypassing the legal process, the scamsters got their work done in only Rs 23 to 30 lakh.
Sources in the known development revealed that if the houses had undergone a genuine process, the government would have gotten Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 per NOC from the house. Approximately, the loss is almost Rs 2 crore to PUDA.
Fake NOCs were generated for people. As a result, houses were made. "It was issued from the state office. Three officers sit in the office for this work. Additional Chief Administrator and Chief Administrator. JE, SD, and EO have signed the documents. The State Officer and PCS officer have been summoned and a detailed inquiry is going on. Two officials (Senior Assistants) have been suspended. One used a fake diary number. More fake NOCs might have been issued, but a detailed inquiry is still going on.