Amid plans to raise ₹ 15,000 crore by the Greater Mohali Development Authority (GMADA), the accountant general, Punjab, has told the high court that ₹ 6,400 crore deposited by the authority in the financial year 2025-26 with the state government treasury is a “serious accounting impropriety.”
The submissions from the accountant general came before the bench of chief justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and justice Rohit Kapoor during the resumed hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) on September 15, raising issues of alleged grave financial impropriety by the state government in dealing with the GMADA funds and questioning the move to raise ₹ 15,000 crore to give a fresh infra push in some of Mohali’s newly carved-out sectors. The PIL had claimed that such amount was required to be appropriated specifically for compliance under Section 10(3) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (RFCTLARR Act) and should have been kept separately. Section 10(3) of the RFCTLARR Act, which says that whenever multi-crop irrigated land is acquired under sub-section (2), an equivalent area of culturable wasteland shall be developed for agricultural purposes, or an amount equivalent to the value of the land acquired shall be deposited with the appropriate government for investment in agriculture for enhancing food security. The high court, while deferring the hearing for September 28, has now asked the government to clarify whether the deposit of ₹ 6,400 crore by GMADA with the state treasury in furtherance of the provisions contained under Section 10(3) of the 2013 law could be absorbed into the consolidated fund to finance the general budgetary deficits when the deposit itself was specifically for a distinct purpose.
“The amount spent by the state during the last 12 years for enhancing food security cannot be utilised to appropriate the deposit of ₹ 6,400 crore, which was exclusively required to be kept in the public accounts of the state as a dedicated fund,” the accountant general had said while countering the government’s claims that large sums were spent to enhance food security. The detailed order of the proceedings was released on Friday.
