Y’nagar DC stays sale of 260 acres of panchayat land

Our Correspondent

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Yamunanagar, August 30

The court of collector (Deputy Commissioner), Yamunanagar, SS Phulia granted a stay on further sale, transfer, gift and alienation of the sold 260 acre panchayat land belonging to Budi gram panchayat of Bilaspur block under Section 13 (A) of Punjab Village Common Land Act, 1961.

After being stayed by the collector on August 12, 2015, DDPO Gagandeep Singh directed the Bilaspur tehsildar to inculcate stay entry in the jamabandi of the said land, so that further sale, gift, transfer and alienation could be stopped with immediate effect.

The application moved by the BDPO, Bilaspur, in the court of collector on July 23, 2015, revealed that over 260 acre land of Budi gram panchayat was recorded as panchayat deh after consolidation and was reserved for common purpose (for generating income of the village).

However, some locals in connivance with the revenue authorities succeeded in generating the partition of panchayat land in July of 1970 vide mutation number 42. Accordingly, the panchayat land was partitioned and mutations were made in the name of private persons.

“In the said case as per the scheme of consolidation and sharat-wazarbul-Arj, the land is reserved for common purposes and it can’t be partitioned. However, revenue authorities, without making gram panchayat the party in the case partitioned the land in favour of private persons in 1970,” said the applicant.

They added, “These private people were neither the co-sharers, nor they had possession over the said panchayat land before January 26, 1950. Therefore, these private people have no concern over this land. As per section 2 (g) of Punjab Village Common Land Act 1961, this land belongs to Budi gram panchayat.”

The panchayat land was further sold and cultivated by the private persons. Now, as many as 99 private persons and a piece of land was also purchased by the Central Government Agriculture Department.

This matter was brought into notice by Yamunanagar DDPO Gagandeep Singh during his routine inspection of revenue record of Budi gram panchayat in July 2015.

He had directed BDPO, Bilaspur to institute a case in the court of collector, so that the said land could be brought under the management and control of the gram panchayat.