17-acre reserved land vacant, Dalits upset

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, December 14

The Dalits at Jhaloor village are raising questions over the Sangrur administration’s failure to conduct the auction of 17 acres reserved for Dalits from the village common land as eight months of the current financial year have already passed.

The Dalits under the banner of Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC) have decided to announce their future course of action against the administration on Friday at the ‘bhog’ on the death anniversary of Dalit woman Gurdev Kaur, who died last year during a clash between Dalits and upper caste men over the possession of reserved land.

All reserved land is lying vacant while the auction of 34 acres of general category land was conducted in November.

“The administration wants to give reserved land to dummy candidates put up by upper caste men and are pressurising us to participate in the auction at the office. We are demanding that the auction must be done in the village. The police have also not arrested all the 32 persons accused in the murder case of Gurdev Kaur. We will announce our action plan on Friday after the ‘bhog’ where a rally will also be organised,” said Mukesh Malaud, district president of ZPSC.

Sangrur DDPO Sukhpal Sidhu denied allegations of attempts to give land to dummy candidates.

“We are trying to conduct the auction of all 17 acres of reserved land as early as possible,” he said.

Under the banner of the Jhaloor Zabar Virodhi Action Committee, members of six organisations, including ZPSC, BKU Ugraha, BKU Krantikari, Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, Krantikar Pendu Mazdoor Union and Kirti Kisan Union, have been demanding that the reserved land should only be given to those Dalits who would cultivate crops over it and not to those who bid for it at the behest of upper caste men.