Villagers erect Nishan Sahib on SGPC land

Tribune News Service

Mohali, May 27

Tension gripped Tasoli, last village of Mohali distict, when residents of the village occupied 128 bigha land donated to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and erected a Nishan Sahib there.

Following this, many senior police officials, including SPs, DSPs, naib tehsildars and SHOs of various police stations reached the spot.

The officials earlier tried to convince villagers, but their anger made the police helpless. With the use of 30-35 tractors, villagers levelled the land and subsequently erected a Nishan Sahib there.

The sevadars (volunteers) of a gurdwara, built on the same land, were forced to escape the spot to save their lives. In the gurdwara, Akhand Path was also started by villagers. They contended that they had occupied the land and protesting peacefully.

In 2015, the gurdwara committe of Tasoli village had donated 128 bigha land to the SGPC. Village sarpanch Kesar Singh said the committee had promised to open a college, dispensary, gurdwara sahib, langar hall, a stadium and a community centre.

He said, “The committee later refused to fulfil the promise they had made to the villagers. Various meetings between villagers and committee representatives held in the past didn’t bring any solution.”

Panchayat Minister Rajinder Singh Bajwa also had a meeting with both parties to resolve the matter. Then it was decided that status quo of the disputed land will be maintained until a court order.

Both parties confirmed that they had decided to respect these conditions that also included installment of a CCTV camera at the spot.

Jasbir Singh, manager, SGPC, said: “Today’s incident is a violation of law and we demand police to take strict action.”

Meanwhile, Mohali SDM Jagdeep Sehgal said: “The matter is under my consideration. Villagers have illegally occupied the land. A case will be registered against people involved in the incident.

When contacted, DSP City-2 Ramandeep Singh said, “On receiving information, a police force was sent to the spot. The police have registered a case.”