Chandigarh, Nov. 10 -- The inter-departmental committee report, set up by the Punjab government, has revealed startling irregularities in a Rs.4-crore land compensation case in Moga, concluding that the 'consent award' prepared in 2022 for land allegedly acquired in 2014 was entirely baseless and the said land had already been acquired by the government in 1963. The inquiry report submitted by Manvesh Singh Sidhu, secretary, revenue, Rajpal Sandhu, DIG PAP-II & DIG NRI, and Hargunjit Kaur, additional secretary, PWD, was ordered by chief secretary KAP Sinha on October 30, after the Punjab and Haryana high court expressed dissatisfaction over contradictory submissions in the case. Following the committee's findings, ADC Moga, Charumita Shekhar (PCS), who was serving as SDM-cum-land acquisition collector, Dharamkot, when the controversial award was approved, was suspended. Besides suspension, the revenue department has also written to the Punjab Vigilance Bureau to register an FIR and start a probe against the officials, including Shekhar, for preparing this alleged 'consented award'. The case revolves around Jaswinder Singh, a resident of Bahadarwala village in Dharamkot tehsil, who claimed that his land had been acquired during the four-laning of the Shahkot-Moga Road (NH-71/703) in 2014 but that he had not received compensation. Based on his representation, a patwari report, later found to be factually incorrect, was endorsed by the then CRO Maninder Singh and SDM Dharamkot, paving the way for a 'consent award' in his favour. The public works department (B&R) executive engineer, VK Kapoor (now retired), wrote to the SDM on September 1, 2022, seeking preparation of the consent award, which was subsequently finalised and forwarded to PWD. The award calculated compensation at commercial rates, citing a petrol pump adjacent to the road, even though the land of the petrol pump was never acquired. The committee found that no land from the Bahadarwala village was acquired under any 2014 NHAI notification. Instead, records revealed that the same Khasra numbers (18//5/2, 18//6, and 19//1/1) were already acquired by the Punjab PWD in 1963 through notification No. 3276-BRIV-63/2151 for widening the existing road. Crucially, at that time, neither the petitioner nor his ancestors owned the land. His grandfather became a co-sharer only in 1966, three years after the acquisition. The mutation for the 1963 acquisition was, however, never entered or sanctioned in Bahadarwala village, which caused the land to continue appearing as private property in subsequent revenue records. "This administrative lapse enabled the manipulation decades later. The committee noted that the SDM, CRO, and PWD officials endorsed the claim without cross-verifying records, while NHAI deposited compensation funds with the SDM's office "without proper scrutiny," the report said. HT has the copy of the report. The probe also pointed out that the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) 2016 consent award guidelines were wrongly invoked, as they apply only to small portions of land actually taken beyond the notified alignment, not to unnotified parcels like this one. The report concluded that the award was "factually incorrect, legally untenable, and procedurally flawed." It cited dereliction of duty by revenue and PWD officials and suggested a criminal investigation to ascertain individual responsibility. Google Earth imagery from 2011 to 2022 confirmed that no additional land was ever taken during the 2014 road expansion near the petitioner's plot, where a petrol pump is now located. The committee concluded that the "consent award" was fabricated and illegal, terming it a serious administrative lapse. Shekhar had earlier denied any role in granting the change of land use (CLU). "The sub-divisional magistrate has no role in issuing or approving CLUs. The CLU was granted by the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA)," she had said, adding that the award money has not been released. "The award was never approved by the MoRTH, as required. The NHAI deposited the compensation amount, which remains untouched in the SDM's account," she had claimed. Besides Ludhiana, GLADA also has the charge of land development in Moga....