Sikh farmers wont' be displaced, assures UP CM

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 20

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath toady assured a three-member delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) that no Sikh farmer would be displaced in the state.

After having a detailed meeting with the UP’s Chief Minister, former MP Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra said Yogi Adityanath announced that the state government would earmark an alternative site for the Armed Forces Centre, which was proposed to come up on the land, which Sikhs had been tilling in Champatpur Chakla in Bijnore.

He said the Chief Minister has formed teams to conduct surveys at four places where Sikhs fear displacement and find out ways and means to give them rights to the land they are tilling.

Prof Chandumajra said Yogi Adityanath appointed Uttar Pradesh Minister for Irrigation Baldev Singh Aulakh as a coordinator for looking into issues faced by the Sikh community.

The SAD committee, including Sikander Singh Maluka and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema, welcomed the assurance given by the Chief Minister and said the meeting would pave a way for award of land rights to Sikhs who had been tilling the land since 1950s.

“We welcome the statement of the UP’s Chief Minister that not a single Sikh will be moved out from his land,” the duo said.