Shamlat land claims: Role of officers under scanner

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 3

Provisions of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, are being ignored by officers of the Rural Development and Panchayats Department while deciding claims of ownership over shamlat land. This has been stated in a recent demi-official letter written by Advocate General (AG) Atul Nanda to Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh.

The letter says that exercising powers of an appellate authority under the Act, the officers instead of adhering to the vital provision of the Act that specifies January 26, 1950, as the date to determine the title of the land in question being shamlat or not, are passing orders on the basis of mutations of the subsequent years.

The Advocate General has cited oral observations by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in connection with the hearing of a civil writ petition. The Advocate General has also referred to scathing remarks made against two senior officials.

“Land is most valuable thing to a farmer and the state of Punjab has a number of competent officers who need to be sensitised about this and it should be ensured that orders are passed after examining the minute details, in accordance with law,” the Advocate General has pointed out while referring to the observation.

Mentioning about scathing remarks against two officers, one of them deceased and the other, SS Bains, who retired as Joint Development Commissioner in February 2017, but continued to pass orders till July 2017, the Advocate General has urged the Chief Secretary to take note of the issue as the reputation and integrity of the government and its officers was in question and asked to take remedial measures.

Stating that he was not aware of any such communication, Rural Development Minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa said the department was contemplating to give powers of the Director and the Joint Development Commissioner to the Divisional Commissioners.

Orders Questionable 

The role of retired bureaucrat SS Bains, who retired as Joint Development Commissioner, is under scanner for settling around 70 cases involving near 1,000 acres of prime land in favour of private individuals in just nine months. Though later the questionable orders that had established ownership of private individuals on these lands were stayed in some cases by the then Financial Commissioner, stating that they had been passed with mala fide intention.