AAP, which talks about 'clean' politics, has given Lok Sabha ticket from Hisar in Haryana to a retired IAS officer, who revoked orders passed by Dr Khemka for stopping land consolidation in two villages
Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) often talks about 'clean' politics and policies. However, when it comes to giving tickets for the Lok Sabha elections, AAP is not different from other political outfits. The new party has given ticket to former bureaucrat Yudhbir Singh Khyalia from Hisar in Haryana. This is the same officer who allowed land consolidation in two Haryana villages that were stopped by Dr Ashok Khemka.
According to a report from Times of India, Khyalia is an ex-bureaucrat who had taken over the Haryana government's land consolidation department a few months after Dr Khemka was transferred out for cancelling the mutation of Robert Vadra's deal with DLF. Vadra is son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
"During his tenure in the land consolidation department, Khemka had withdrawn the consolidation process in two villages, Kot (Faridabad) and Rozka Gujar (Gurgaon). His 23 August 2012 order had said that in Kot, 2,565 acres out of 3,184 acres were uncultivable hilly areas. In Rozka-Gujar, Khemka had stopped the consolidation process of 5,744 acres stating that not a square inch had been cultivated for a long time as it was fallow. He had added that no one lived in the village any more. However Khyalia revoked both orders in 2013," the report says.
Earlier in October 2012, Dr Khemka cancelled a sweetheart land deal between DLF, the real estate giant and Skylight Hospitality owned by Vadra. Dr Khemka had been in this job for less than three months. Vadra had got this land transferred to him in February 2008 for Rs7.5 crore and within a few months flipped it to DLF for Rs58 crore, for a 700% windfall gain in a few months.
Vadra was acting as a middlemen in the true sense – he had not even paid for the land. He had only produced a cheque, an overdraft, and the land was transferred to his company. The seller of the land had not even encashed the cheque. It was a sham transaction. Vadra then sold this land, which he did not own, to DLF. In effect, Vadra paid for his purchase after he sold this land, which he did not own. The land belonged to those who were close to the Congress and the state chief minister. Dr Khemka cancelled this sham deal.
The Congress government of Bhupinder Hooda reacted in the two ways they always react. One, by shunting Dr Kehmka out. And two, by serving him a charge sheet for having caused damage to the reputation of Robert Vadra and that of real estate giant DLF, and for "illegally" cancelling the land deal.
Last month, in response to Haryana government’s move to charge him with various irregularities in connection with his path breaking decision to introduce better quality roofing for warehouses, Dr Khemka sent a strongly worded point-by-point rebuttal to Principal Accountant General (Audit) of Haryana, while alleging bias on the part of two tainted state government functionaries for cancelling a dubious land deal of Vadra.
Dr Khemka alleges that “Mr SS Dhillon and Mr Roshan Lal are acting in a criminal and vindictive manner in collusion with the ruling political executive to frame me.”
SS Dhillon is Principal Secretary to Chief Minister while Roshan Lal is the Principal Secretary Agriculture. Both of them have a checkered record, compared to Dr Khemka’s unblemished record to exemplary public service.
Coming back to Khaylia, several disgruntled AAP workers have protested against the party’s decision of fielding the retired IAS officer from Hisar. According to a report from NitiCentral.com, party workers from AAP burnt posters of leaders like Manish Sisodia, Yogendra Yadav and Kejriwal in Hisar on Thursday evening. They accused the party high command of ignoring old party leaders and workers and also lodged complaints against the allotment of party ticket to Khayalia, demanding cancellation of the ticket, the report says.
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I am posting the complaint mentioned below
How Times of India is misleading readers
20 Mar
This is in reference to the news item of 12th March with headline: “AAP ticket for ex-officer who reversed Khemka orders”. Here is the link to the newws item for your reference:http://timesofindia.indiatimes...
This news item claims that the ex-IAS officer Yudhbir Singh Khyalia reversed the land consolication orders issued by Ashok Khemka.
And then the news item contradicts the headline by adding these statements:
1. “In Kot, the state government had initiated the consolidation process, which I stopped later,” said Khyalia. “After an enquiry, I had echoed Khemka’s decision.”
2. Khyalia had stood by Khemka’s order on the Vadra-DLF land deal. He had told the Haryana government that the basis of Khemka’s decision to cancel the mutation was correct.
When we look at these two statements in the news item, we can understand that the headline is contradicting the news in detail.
This kind of reporting is in violation of Principles and Ethics (http://presscouncil.nic.in/Con... outlined by Press Council of India. The guidelines say: ” The Press shall eschew publication of inaccurate, baseless, graceless, misleading or distorted material. All sides of the core issue or subject should be reported. Unjustified rumours and surmises should not be set forth as facts.”
The news item in discussion is inaccurate and baseless, misleading and distorted material.
I called Mr Vinay Pandey, Mr Vinay Pandey, TOI Grievance Redressal team (http://www.indiatimes.com/term... at 0124-4187000 and there was no answer. Then I sent a mail to him at “[email protected]”
I request you all to send a mail to Mr Vinay Pandey with a CC to Press Council of India ([email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected])
Here is the text of the mail that I sent:
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This is in reference to the news item of 12th March with headline: “AAP ticket for ex-officer who reversed Khemka orders”. Here is the link to the newws item for your reference: http://timesofindia.indiatimes...
I am attaching a screenshot of the news item as well.
This news item claims that the ex-IAS officer Yudhbir Singh Khyalia reversed the land consolication orders issued by Ashok Khemka.
And then the news item contradicts the headline by adding these statements:
1. “In Kot, the state government had initiated the consolidation process, which I stopped later,” said Khyalia. “After an enquiry, I had echoed Khemka’s decision.”
2. Khyalia had stood by Khemka’s order on the Vadra-DLF land deal. He had told the Haryana government that the basis of Khemka’s decision to cancel the mutation was correct.
When we look at these two statements in the news item, we can understand that the headline is contradicting the news in detail.
This kind of reporting is in violation of Principles and Ethics (http://presscouncil.nic.in/Con... outlined by Press Council of India. The guidelines say: ” The Press shall eschew publication of inaccurate, baseless, graceless, misleading or distorted material. All sides of the core issue or subject should be reported. Unjustified rumours and surmises should not be set forth as facts.”
The news item in discussion is inaccurate and baseless, misleading and distorted material.
I request you to issue an apology and corrigendum on this news item and ensure that such misleading headlines are avoided in future.
Looking forward to a swift action.Kindly remove this post as it is highly incorrect information as no order of Mr. Khemka regarding the Vadra land deal was ever reversed by Mr. Yudhbir Singh and as such, this post makes the website people liable to be prosecuted under the Information Technology Act. Your website being a responsible information platform must not share wrong information.
Any order which was passed, was purely administrative and it did not relate to any land deal.
Similarly, I had highest regard towards Mr. Khemka. Ex-IAS, who is subjected to severe discomfort and penalty by the Same CONGI, for his True workmanship as bureaucrat.
Now, I hate the AAP for stalling Mr.Khyalia against whom allegations were levelled that reversed the orders of a true civil servant.