Freed panchayat land in Sirhind back with encroachers

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, August 25

The Department of Rural Development and Panchayats patted its back for having cleared 9,000 acres of panchayat land of encroachments in the last five months, but it seems to have forgotten to take care of the reclaimed land.

In some villages, vacated land is back in the possession of encroachers.

The most glaring example is of 417 acres at Chaleri Kalan village in Fatehgarh Sahib’s Sirhind block. With much fanfare, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats Kuldeep Dhaliwal had made an announcement in May that the land had been reclaimed.

It had been in illegal possession of 63 families since 1904. The minister had claimed the panchayat land was vacated after 118 years and termed it one of the biggest achievements of his department. The minister himself visited the village to get the land vacated.

Sources say the District Development and Panchayat Officer, Fatehgarh Sahib, has prepared a report regarding the reclaimed land that has been encroached upon again. It has been claimed that the same people, from whom the land was vacated, have sown paddy on it.

Senior functionaries of the department say the government has decided to go soft on small encroachments and asked officials to go after big land grabbers. This is the reason not much effort was made to stop the reoccupation of Chaleri Kalan land, they say.

Two days ago, Dhaliwal had announced that about 9,000 acres of panchayat land had been freed from encroachers in five months.

Soon after coming to power, the AAP government had launched a campaign to free panchayat land from illegal possession. Significantly, before the paddy season, the department’s drive to remove encroachments was in full swing as a large tract of the land was lying idle.

On July 29, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had supervised a government drive to take possession of 2,828 acres of illegally occupied prime land worth Rs 350 crore in Majri block of Mohali district from 15 influential persons, including sons of Sangrur MP Simranjit Singh Mann and former minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar.

Even this land has been caught up in legal wrangling as the court has ordered status quo on the matter.

The government as well as “encroachers” claim the land is in their possession.

Back to square one

Sources say the District Development and Panchayat Officer, Fatehgarh Sahib, has prepared a report regarding the reclaimed lands that have been encroached upon again. It has been claimed that the same people, from whom the land in Chaleri Kakan village was vacated, have sown paddy on it. The land was in illegal possession since 1904.

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