The controversy-ridden AG Colony at Kadru in Ranchi, where it is believed that land was acquired at a subsidy but sold at higher rates by unscrupulous people. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Aug. 30: If the story of one housing cooperative society is illustrative of what has happened with others, the AG Colony, Kadru, can easily be cited.

An inquiry report has recently confirmed what everyone suspected, that land was acquired and handed over to the society at highly subsidised rates but thereafter changed ownership at higher rates. Some people obviously made a killing.

The revenue department of the then Bihar government had transferred 83.42 acres of land to the society, first in 1970 and again in 1983.

While employees of the accountant general?s office benefited by the earlier allotment and each of them received five katthas of land, the allotment in 1983, of 43 acres of land, was manipulated to ensure that ?outsiders?, among them senior bureaucrats, got the prized land.

Part of the land was handed over to DAV Kapil Deo (not Kapil Dev) school and part of it is being used to construct the Devgiri apartment.

Almost 70 of the 100 plots, distributed in 1983, went to non-AG employees. Among the receivers were four bureaucrats who allegedly had thrown their weight for the acquisition of additional land.

Recently another bureaucrat was allotted land, setting aside the bylaws.

That land acquired in 1983 was kept vacant by the society, according to some experts, should be reason enough for the government to withdraw the allotment.

AG employees contend that the cooperative society has been a pocket organisation of a former society chairman, Sukumar Das, and former secretary, Kapil Deo Giri.

It is after this gentleman?s name that the DAV Trust agreed to set up the school. Due to large-scale irregularities, however, the society has finally been disbanded and an administrator appointed on the orders of the high court.

Office-bearers of the society, acknowledged AG employees, had committed a fraud for personal gains and fooled the people.

Nobody protested though, cowed down by the clout of Giri.

It was in November last year that the residents finally began to protest when DAV Kapil Deo school began fencing the playground, spread over two acres of land, and claimed the land to be theirs.

The dispute has finally been taken to the court, with residents alleging that the school was given the land lease for 9 years and 11 months in 1991 and the land should therefore revert to the cooperative.

The school principal, M.K. Sinha, declined to comment and said it was for the court now to decide the dispute.

Kapil Deo Giri was not available for comments as he was away to Patna to consult his lawyers.

Residents claim that the school has handed over the 2.5 acre plot, which was meant for construction of sewerage and water tank for the complex.

What is more, they allege that the society ended up allotting 40,000 square feet of land to Giri and his family members. The former office-bearers of the society claimed that the amended by-laws of the society authorised them to sell the plots to outsiders. But the ?amended? bylaws were apparently never approved by the Registrar (Cooperatives).

Residents of course claimed that they had no clue to either the bylaws or the amendments or, for that matter, the activities of the society.

An inquiry into the affairs of other housing cooperatives in the capital, agreed sources in the Registrar?s office, might well unearth similar skeletons.