Reni Canal Project : In major scam, people dupe government into buying its own land

FIA starts examining backdated ownership papers for at least 5,000 acres.

KARACHI:

It could be the biggest land scam for Sindh. Millions of rupees were paid in compensation to people for their land that the government needed for the Reni Canal Project. The only problem is that these people never owned the land in the first place — the government did.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has started looking into the case. “We have investigated the matter and there is no record of how the state land was allotted to these people,” one of the investigators said. “This all has happened after the government announced it was starting the Reni Canal Project.”

Sindh has formed a committee with member of the Board of Revenue Mohammad Qasim Lashari, former secretary Mir Mohammad Parhiyar and Mohammad Maher. They will be gathering records of the dehs and government-owned land.

The mad scramble to acquire ownership papers to the land around Reni Canal began after the government announced in 2000 that it was starting work the project.

The project needed 21,000 acres out of which 5,887 acres had to be “bought” from people who said they owned the land. The rest was owned by the government.

As a result, sources said that at least Rs1.09 billion was paid to 2,300 people who claimed to be genuine owners of the land.

Reni is a flood canal designed to irrigate around 412,400 acres in Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur districts. General Pervez Musharraf announced the project, which was part of the Water Vision programme. Its estimated cost was Rs18 billion and work started in 2002 but it is still unfinished

The FIA is investigating how certain people came to claim ownership of the land. Sources said that a majority of the claims were forged. In 2001, the government banned the allotment of state land along with the canal project.

But influential people acquired ownership of the land under backdated paperwork under the “Land Grant Policy”. In some cases, people as young as 18 years old were shown to have acquired the land in 1991.

“Around 4,000 acres were allotted to influential people in Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur districts in paperwork dating back to1991-1992,” sources said. The rate of the land was fixed at Rs150,000 to Rs200,000 per acre. Revenue and land officers are believed to have helped influential men have state land transferred to their names. They then sold this land to the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) — which is executing the project — at exorbitant prices.

Sources said that chief of the Mahars, Sardar Muhammad Bux Mahar, and his employees are among the beneficiaries and the FIA has issued them notices to appear before the investigation team. Sources said that the state land worth Rs160 million was sold by the people of Khangarh, Ghotki, which is the hometown of Sardar Muhmmad Bux Mahar.

“Some owners of the land who sold their property to the government, transferred the money to the account of Sardar Muhammad Bux Mahar,” said FIA Assistant Director Mir Mazhar Jabar, who is investigating the case.Talking to The Express Tribune, he said that even though notices were issued, Mahar was not willing to record his statement.

“We will have no other option, but to take action if he will not give a response,” Jabar said.

Despite many attempts, Sardar Muhammad Bux Mahar did not respond to this newspaper’s requests to comment on the case. However, Ali Gohar Mahar, the former nazim of Ghotki district, who is a relative told The Express Tribune, “All these reports are baseless and it seems like the government is going to initiate a policy of political victimization against the Mahar family of Ghotki.” He said that they were one of the founders of the Reni Canal Project, which would irrigate barren land.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th,  2011.