122 Dalit families of Sangrur village reap golden harvest

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, April 24

The fruit of hard work is sweet and 122 Dalit families of Balad Kalan know it best. After allegedly facing problems created by upper-caste men of the village, today they succeeded in harvesting wheat on 425 bighas of reserved land they had jointly taken on lease from the village common land.

The village is infamous for repeated clashes of Dalits with upper caste men and the police over the possession of reserved land.

They claim that from sowing to harvesting of crop, it was no less than fighting a daily battle to protect their crop as they always feared some miscreants may damage their crop to spread tension in the village.

Today, many of them said a bigger battle would be fought next month when the administration would give the reserved land on annual lease. Dalits fear a repeat of clashes and registration of cases against them as it has been happening for the past some years.

“In 2014, the police cane-charged us when we were demanding that land reserved for Dalits should only be given to genuine bidders and not dummy ones projected by upper-caste men. The registered attempt-to-murder cases against 41 Dalits and we remained behind bars from June 27 to August 22 that year. Ultimately, we were released without bail when we kept refusing to take bail,” said Mukesh Malaud, district president of Zameen Prapati Sangharash Committee (ZPSC).

Today, the 122 families got 1,600 quintals of wheat. They have distributed 5 quintals per family and kept the remaining 990 quintals to sell and earn money to take the land on lease for the coming year.

Malaud said last year too, cops cane-charged Dalits when they were raising the same demand. The police booked 70 persons, including women and girls, and they were released without bail after they refused to take bail.

“Though we never want any clash, the police at the instance of upper-caste men always create problems. We request Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to take effective steps to prevent violence this year as we are only demanding our right,” said Charn Singh, former sarpanch of village.

Sangrur ADC Punamdeep Kaur said the administration had been taking all required steps to ensure transparency in leasing out reserved land.