Total Questions : 1
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Q. Maruti is working as deputy secretary in Uttar Pradesh’s revenue department, dealing with grants of government land for various purposes. As land has become very scarce and very expensive, such grants have to be carefully made. The government has formulated a policy for the grant of its land for public purposes.
The Government’s policy has been that government lands can be granted for purposes such as public educational institutions, hostels, hospitals, charitable institutions, government offices and rural infrastructure.
Further, land could be given to private parties in a few cases for institutions that undertake programmes of education, health and skill up-gradation for weaker sections of society.
One day a proposal for granting land to a cultural centre proposed in a prime urban location reached Maruti’s desk. The centre was not proposed by the state culture department, but by a private group.
As Maruti was reading the file, he received a phone call from the Revenue minister’s private secretary that the person who wants to set up the centre is closely related to a prominent central leader of the ruling political establishment.
The private secretary added that the proposal was cleared by the lower levels in the department and that Maruti should also endorse it positively. Maruti saw that the proposal could not be cleared under the government’s policy.
The lower level staff justified the proposal since the official policy resolution contained a residual phrase that grants can be made for “other public purposes as may be decided by the government”. Maruti feared that the grant of valuable land to a private person with political connections could lead to controversy.
In this situation, what should be the correct course of action and why?
GS Paper 4 Case Studies
