Tripura’s former minister and senior Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman on Friday demanded a CBI probe into the allegation of Rs 10,000-crore land scam in 2023 where many government-owned land parcels were allotted to individuals.
Barman said the investigation into the scam, which allegedly involves government officials, should be supervised by Tripura High Court Chief Justice to ensure transparency.
In reply to it, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha said in the ongoing Assembly budget session that a formal complaint should be submitted in this regard and promised to take up the matter legally after an investigation.
While quoting a confidential letter by the then Sepahijala district magistrate Dr Vishal Kumar to the additional secretary of the General Administration (Personnel and Training) department in 2023, Barman stated in the House that there were about several cases where land was transferred without proper documentation or landowners’ knowledge. The letter had mentioned certain instances of conversion of government ‘khas’ land into ‘jote’ land and selling without the authorities’ approval.
He claimed that the transactions of illegal land are going on throughout all the eight districts of the state.
He further accused that the state government of not taking action against the accused government officials and instead transferring the district magistrate 22 days after he flagged the matter.
The Congress leader alleged that the land scam was taking place under the patronage of the government and expressed doubt over the transfer of the then district magistrate.
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