Umbha violence: 6,600 acre illegally occupied by cooperative committees, says Sonbhadra panel

LUCKNOW: Around 6,602 acre of Rs 660 crore has been found to be illegally occupied in Sonbhadra and Mirzapur by largely cooperative committees.
This was revealed on Thursday in a report submitted to chief minister Yogi Adityanath by the Renuka Kumar Committee, which was set up after the Umbha violence in which 11 villagers were massacred over a land dispute on July 17 last year.It has recommended that the report be sent to the cooperative department for further action.
The committee, set up in August 2019 under the chairmanship of additional chief secretary (revenue) Renuka Kumar, to probe Krishi Sehkari Samities. A report by the forest department is yet to be submitted.
The committee investigated 39 cooperative committees in Sonbhadra and Mirzapur and did not find records for three. Records between 1952 and 2019 were looked at. Out of the seven committees that have been found to be occupying government land illegally, at least one belongs to a senior Congress leader.
Three committees are located in Sonbhadra. These are Mensvar Krishi Cooperative Committee, Perh Krishi Cooperative Committee and Baraudhi Krishi Cooperative Committee. In Mirzapur, four committees were violating rules. These are Gopalpur Krishi Cooperative Committee, Bahori Krishi Cooperative Committee, Mewari Krishi Cooperative Committee and Patehara Krishi Cooperative Committee.
A senior official in the CM office said that as per the report, 19,880 bighas of land was investigated, of which 10,569 bighas or 6,602 acres, was found to be recoverable. “Most of this land is either ceiling or belongs to gram sabhas. The government will start the process of retrieving this land at the earliest,” said the official.
The report has recommended action against two specific persons, a tehsildar and a naib tehsildar. While no district magistrate has been mentioned in the report, the matter of land allotment took place at the SDM and ADM levels and it will be up to the cooperative department to assess who all have been responsible for the illegalities, said sources.
The report has also raised questions over the conduct of revenue department officials, who either allowed the illegal transactions to take place or who did not react when anomalies came up which would have brought the matter to light much earlier.