The sealed petrol pump. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Feb. 11: The land department has sealed a petrol pump owned by Englishbazar municipality chairman Narendranath Tiwari on the ground that it has used up a portion of vested land.

Debabrata Roy Chowdhury, a resident of Raiganj in North Dinajpur, had got the licence for Assam Oil Company’s only petrol pump in Malda through a Scheduled Caste quota. He entered into a joint venture with Tiwari, who had bought the plot near Gourbongo railway station a year ago. The land is on National Highway 34, about 8km from Malda town.

Sources in the land reforms department said the duo should have sought the government’s permission before making the state-owned portion the entrance to their petrol pump.

The civic chief said he had bought the 1.5-bigha plot from a realtor in Malda town. He, however, admitted that the entry to the petrol pump was through vested land.

“Construction has been stalled for the time being. We have started negotiating with the land department. I am hopeful that the dispute will be settled soon,” Tiwari, who belongs to the Congress, said.

District land revenue officer Amiya Biswas alleged that a sharecropper who used to work on the vested land had been evicted by the owners of the petrol pump.

Biswas added that a water body in the area, too, had been filled up after which a probe was ordered. Tiwari was fined Rs 27,000 after the block land and land revenue officer submitted his report holding the civic chief guilty.

“The landowner has been told that unless he gives our department an equal portion of land (around 5 decimal), construction will remain suspended,” Biswas said.

Tiwari alleged that some of his party colleagues had hatched a conspiracy against him, but did not name Englishbazar MLA Krishnendu Chowdhury, who is known to be his bete noire.