Sekhowal residents protest ‘forced’ land acquisition

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 31

Residents of Sekhowal village are up in arms against the district administration and the police for allegedly forcing them to surrender their land to the government for an industrial park coming up in Koomkalan, as announced by the state government recently.

A lot of hue and cry was raised by the residents today, who maintained that they were not willing to give their land to the government but the administration was “forcefully” getting everything done in an “illegal” manner.

Santokh Singh, one of the residents of the village, alleged that the police took the woman sarpanch with them to sign some documents. A video of the protest by village residents also got viral on YouTube, an online video-sharing platform.

The residents said they would never handover their land to the government and they were ready to sacrifice their lives too in this regard. One of the residents said four days ago, they went to administration officials to show that they were the owners of their land. However, today, they were being told that the government had taken over their land.

Anti-government slogans were also raised by the residents during the protest.

An incident has come to light in which a police party was deployed to pick up the sarpanch of Sekhewal village on July 30 late in the evening. They took her to the Land Records office to get the land registry done. However, the attempt was reportedly foiled when the public gathered outside the office and held a protest.

The Public Action Committee (PAC) Against Koomkalan Textile Park condemned the “underhand” tactics being adopted by revenue officials to snatch the land from village panchayats in the name of the industrial park.

The committee said the government should not resort to such desperate measures and illegalities. Government officials must ensure that no one was threatened or made to sign any papers under duress against the free will of residents. It has come to light through media reports that residents were dead against any such transfer of land and had recently passed a gram sabha resolution to block any aquisition of the panchayat land of Sekhewal village. The will of people in democracy was supreme and must be respected by the officials as well as the state government. The PAC, formed by civil society organisations, expresses solidarity with the residents of Sekhewal in their struggle for their democratic rights.

The organisations that are part of the PAC include Better World Campaign, Satth, Ramgarhia Educational Council, RBS Roots, Initiators of Change, EcoSikh, Naroya Punjab, Ludhiana Cares Ladies Society, Vigilant Citizens’ Forum, Lok Adhikar Lehar, Sangharsh, Mindset, an NGO, Ludhiana Pedallers Club, Naroya Punjab Manch, Guru Nanak Educational and Religious Society, Bhai Ghanaiya Cancer Roko Sewa Society, Tapovan Trust (Rajasthan), Punjab Eco-friendly Association (PEFA) and Kheti Virasat Mission.

Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, however, said whatever procedure had been initiated till now was as per the resolution of the panchayat. Panchayat being a local self-government was free to take its decisions. Nothing would be done against the wishes of the panchayat. Some people were trying to misstate facts.

“The earlier version of people that it was not a forest land has proved wrong. Even in the present case, the truth will come out soon. Nothing will be done against law,” Sharma said.

Will never hand over land to govt: Residents

On Friday, a lot of hue and cry was raised by the residents of Sekhowal village, who alleged that they were not willing to give their land to the government but the administration was “forcefully” getting everything done in an “illegal” manner. They said they will never handover their land to the government and they were ready to sacrifice their lives too in this regard. A resident said four days ago, they went to administration officials to show that they were the owners of their land. However, on Friday, they were being told that the government had taken over their land.

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