Land for labourers: Activists protest at BDPO’s office

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 14

Activists of the Pendu Mazdoor Union today held a dharna at the Block Development and Panchayat Officer’s office against the alleged grabbing of land meant to be allocated to landless labourers and Dalits.

State press secretary of the union, Kashmir Singh Ghugshore, said the administration had forsaken the promises of providing land to the landless peasants and labourers.

He said while resolutions had been passed in gram sabha meetings on the provision of residential plots to over five dozen villages and a government notification had also been passed regarding the same, the administration had yet not responded to the promises.

Labourers said the bureaucracy, rather than paying heed to their demands, was siding with the well-heeled land owners in villages, some of whom have been accused of usurping lands illegally.

The activists of the Pendu Mazdoor Union said the administration has also been planning clandestine auctions for this land.

Kashmir Singh Ghugshore alleged that 2.5 acres at Dhaggar village at Rurka Kalan had been reserved for the needy, as per a gram sabha resolution.

He said under political pressure, the village land was not issued as per promise. Ghugshore added that the land was auctioned to another party and the landless laying a claim over it weren’t informed regarding the proceedings.

He made similar claims about land at Sunnad village in Nurmahal. The activists threatened that if any farming was conducted on the land reserved for the landless, as per the resolutions, then the administration would be responsible for the consequences of the issue.