5.5-acre land in SBS Nagar a bone of contention

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, March 22

A 5.5 acre chunk of prime land in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (475 acre scheme), a colony developed by Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), has become a bone of contention between the legal heirs of the land owner and the Trust authorities with the owners pressing for the exemption of the said land, said to be worth a market value of some Rs200 crore, and a section of LIT officials stoutly opposing the ‘exemption’, which was acquired more than 40 years ago.

This piece of land, forming a part of 194 kanal – 15 marla land, acquired for development of 475 acre scheme – in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, has been mired in prolonged litigation with the legal heirs of the land owner – one Devinder Kaur, daughter of Bhagwant Kaur, filing civil suits in the lower court, and following up with appeals in the Punjab and Haryana High Court and even in the Supreme Court of India, without getting any favourable verdict from any quarter.

Sources in LIT indicated that after the land owners exhausted all legal channels to get the land exempted, the Trust initiated the procedure to obtain the possession of the land and secured the possession of some 18-acre land in November 2016.

In a strange development, around that time the Land Acquisition Collector (LAC) made a speaking order in March 2016 saying the 22 K- 4 M land could not be acquired. The LAC wrote another memo (002 dated January 9, 2017), which mentioned that the land in question was exempted vide resolution no. 533 of July 11, 1990.

However, the Additional Chief Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, disagreed with the opinion of the LAC and directed LIT vide letter no. 7/1212015(12)-2LG2/845785/1-10 dated September 22, 2016, to take possession of the entire land.

Sources, however, maintained that the resolution quoted by the LAC (533) only dealt with the built-up area lying in the said land and there was no mention of any exemption of vacant land.

Ostensibly, to pave way for the approval of a resolution seeking exemption of the said 5.5 acre land, LIT top brass sought a report from the engineering branch of the Trust. However, the report submitted by the engineering branch a couple of days ago (copy with The Tribune) took the stand that this chunk of land was not exempted and could not be exempted as it had been duly acquired, compensation was deposited in the court and all legal verdicts were in favour of the Trust.

When contacted, LIT Chairman Parminder Singh Gill said as of now, there was no proposal to adopt any resolution for the exemption of this land. “We have formed a sub-committee to discuss the matter in detail and make its recommendations. Based on the report of the sub-committee, any further action, if required, would be taken,” he said.