Notably, the Deputy Commissioner fixes a minimum property price for all the areas in the district. This is the minimum price at which land sale and purchase is registered. It is from this sale that the government earns its revenue. From each land registry, the state gets 8 per cent revenue in the form of stamp papers if the registry is in the name of a woman and 9 per cent in case it is in the name of a man. Each land registry involves 1 per cent duty applicable up to Rs 10,000 only. However, the new list seems to be going against this policy.

Sample this: The Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) approved Basant City, a colony located in Threeke village. It has been given a new price tag of Rs 2,000 per square yard for its residential plots. The price as per the first list was Rs 7,000. However, Central Town, an unapproved colony nearby, attracts a price tag of Rs 3,000 per square yard.

This is not an isolated case (see box for other examples).

The new list has stirred its share of controversy. BJP leader and Property Dealers Association president Kamal Chaitely is very vocal in his protest as he says, "The District Administration has played a very dubious role in fixing these prices. It is strange that the local administration changed the list many times before releasing the final version."

Another property dealer Ranjit Singh who runs his business from Daad says, "This is usually how the land business works. People (read colonisers) who have the clout and the money get the rates fixed for their colonies. Now, the colonies that have lower rates will rule the market. The Janpath Enclave is yet to be declared a colony. It has no market rate as yet but the local administration has already fixed its rate."

Meanwhile, sources say the pricing is done deliberately "to benefit a certain section of colonisers.

A majority of land sale and purchase is done in the approved colonies. Rates in these colonies have been deliberately kept low so that the colonisers can rake in the moolah and when it comes to registering a land deal, it is done at a very low rate and the government loses revenue." Another senior official says, "Though a committee is required to fix the prices, the powers to accept the prices or not rests with the administration. All these prices are at the discretion of the administration so at least from the government quarters, no official has any right or power to object to a certain rate. It is passed as the higher officials want it to be."

Interestingly, Deputy Commissioner Sumer Singh Gurjar said, "The prices of the colonies have been fixed in consultation with the Property Dealers Association and the officers of the district administration concerned.