Dagshai families demand return of ancestral fields

For 22 families of Dagshai cantonment, their ancestral fields are not just pieces of land but lifelines that sustained them for generations. Today, they stand dispossessed, demanding re-leasing of the same agricultural land they had cultivated since 1912 until it was taken back by the authorities two decades ago.

Even 78 years after independence, the residents rue, they remain deprived of the right to till their soil. With limited avenues of livelihood in the hilly cantonment town, farming had supplemented their family incomes for decades. But the land, measuring 51.29 acres, was reclassified as B-4 type Defence land — a category meant for vacant property not under private occupation or military use.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of Dagshai Cantonment, the land had been leased out for agricultural purposes, but the lease expired on May 31, 1974. Since then, it was never renewed. In January 2021, under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971, the families were formally declared unauthorised occupants and eviction followed. The Defence Estate Officer, Ambala, subsequently took possession.

Hopes had briefly risen when the government announced an exercise to exclude civilian land from cantonment towns like Dagshai. Residents believed this would restore their rights. But the move stalled after the state government sought monetary support from the Union government to manage civilian areas. Bound by the Cantonment Act, which restricts land use and ownership, families now find themselves trapped in bureaucratic deadlock.

Their struggle is not new. In 2017, after receiving eviction notices, the families met the Defence Estate Officer at Ambala. Their pleas went unheard. The matter even reached Parliament, where former MP Virender Kashyap urged that residents not be evicted from land that provided them livelihood. Yet, despite these interventions, no relief materialised.

Now, with their ancestral bond to the fields severed, the families continue their fight. For them, the issue is not just about agriculture but about dignity, roots, and belonging in the land they once nurtured.