Bhikhalal Jethava, father of the slain RTI activist Amith Jethava, has sent a legal notice to Gujarat government seeking a freeze on development activities on all lands, the allotments of which are being probed by the M B Shah Commission for alleged irregularities.
The Narendra Modi government, on August 17, appointed Justice Shah, a retired judge, to head a commission of inquiry to probe allegations of corruption; especially those levelled by the Gujarat Congress against state government in a memorandum submitted to the President earlier.
The allotments under the commission's scanner include ones to the Tata (for Nano plant), Adani Group (for Mundra Port and Mundra Special Economic Zone), Essar Group, L&T (in Hazira, Surat) and other allotments to the industrialists near major cities.
Jethava, through his lawyer Anand Yagnik, has sent a notice to the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, demanding that a notification be issued to stop development on these lands.
"It is necessary that till the Commission completes its inquiry...And makes recommendations, all the allottees be directed not to develop the land," Jethava's notice said.
"If the allottees are permitted to develop the land in question, then the inquiry will be inconsequential," it said.
Jethava's notice further stated that if the industries put up constructions on these lands, then irrespective of the outcome of commission's inquiry, it would be difficult for the government to take them back and put them to another use.
Amit Jethava, a Right To Information Act activist who carried on a campaign against illegal mining in Gir sanctuary area, was shot dead last July.
By : daily.bhaskar
