Farmers of Jastarwal village near Ajnala oppose auction of common land, force team of officials to return

Amritsar, November 16

Farmers at Jastarwal village near Ajnala forced a team of government officials, who went to conduct an auction of a common land here on Wednesday, to return. The farmers told them the government move to hand over the land to the panchayat department would be opposed at all costs.

The farmers under the banner of Kirti Kisan Union and BKU Ugraha raised slogans against the state government and reasoned that they had been tilling the land for the past many decades and suddenly, the state government introduced a law terming all common lands as panchayat lands.

Kirti Kisan Union leader Jatinder Singh Chinna said, “The village has around 400 acres of land and it is being used for agriculture by many local families.” He said out of the total, the farmers had been given ownership rights for 300 acres.

For another 10 acres, the farmers had already got a court order in their favour, said Chinna, adding that even on the remaining land, the village panchayat did not have any right as it falls in the category of common land.

Raise slogans against govt

The farmers under the banner of Kirti Kisan Union and BKU Ugraha raised slogans against the state government and reasoned that they had been tilling the land for the past many decades and suddenly, the state government introduced a law terming all common lands as panchayat lands.