Punjab Govt now set to lock horns with BBMB over its leased properties in Nangal

The Punjab Government is once again set to lock horns with the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), this time over the properties leased out to private persons in the Nangal township.

The BBMB recently started eviction proceedings against 63 property occupants in the township after a Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment. After the HC orders, sources said the BBMB was planning to submit eviction plan in the court by December 31 of the 63 properties against which eviction orders had been issued by the BBMB Estate Officer.

The move has caused panic among residents of Nangal town, which has predominantly been settled on the BBMB property. The BBMB had given project land on lease to private individuals when the Bhakra dam was being built. A majority of the people to whom the project properties were leased out were Bhakra Dam oustees from Nangal’s surrounding villages or from areas of Himachal Pradesh which were submerged in Gobind Sagar Lake of the dam and private traders brought in to settle in the town. The properties were leased out to settle workers in the town to develop Bhakra Dam in 1960s. Since then, many of the original lease holders have sold their properties to other individuals or have made alterations in the buildings as shops that were allotted to them.

The BBMB officials, considering the alterations in original buildings or transfer of leased properties to other people as illegal, have started eviction proceeding against the lease holders. Thousands of people, facing eviction from their houses or shops, have started approaching the Punjab Government to save them.

People have taken delegations to meet AAP MLA and Minister for Education and Public Relations Harjot Singh Bains to save them. Bains said he would fight for the people of the Nangal town both legally and politically.

Bains said he, along with residents of Nangal, would meet CM Bhagwant Singh Mann after he returns from his foreign tour.

The Punjab Government, which has 60 per cent stake in the BBMB, would put up a proposal in the BBMB board to bring in a proposal for the one-time settlement of the lease problem of Nangal residents, he said.