Rajasthan cancels 18 mutation of land in Bikaner

The Rajasthan government has cancelled the mutation of about 374.44 hectares, a part of which was said to be owned by Robert Vadra’s company, in Bikaner’s Kolayat region.

The state government has cancelled 18 mutations (transfer of ownership) found to be “illegal in private persons’ name”, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Ran Singh told PTI over phone on Sunday.

“On December 31, the SDM court in Kolayat took up multiple complaints filed by Kolayat Tehsildar on 18 false mutation cases and cancelled these mutation as the land was found to be wrongfully alloted to private persons in last few years. The mutation cases were not issued by the Commissioner Colonisation situated in Bikaner and were found to be illegally possessed by private persons, and hence cancelled,” Singh said.

Asked if any of the land cancelled by SDM belonged to a company owned by Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Singh refused to comment saying, “we do not know about this, as nothing of any company or name mentioned in the cases were put before the SDM court by the Kolayat Tehsildar”.

Tehsildar Gajendra Singh also denied to comment on the identity of land owners.

Tehsildar Singh, however, said it was to be investigated who were the said owners and whom they further sold the land on which they did the illegal mutation.

According to Bikaner administration sources, the 374.44 hectares of land was illegally allotted or possessed in 2006-7 by some villagers, who were “wrongfully” shown as farmers displaced by Mahajan Field Firing Range of the Army. The farmers who were actually displaced were allotted land between 1992 and 1996, the sources said.

Bikaner Collector Arti Dogra was not available for comments in spite of repeated calls.