M A I N   N E W S

Hooda brings legislation to rehabilitate Punjabi farmers
Naveen S Garewal/TNS

Chandigarh, September 11
The Haryana Government has fulfilled a long-pending demand of Punjabi farmers in the state by bringing in a legislation that will restore land to them on lease for 99 years.

The state had evicted many farmers, who had been tilling land given to them on lease, after the expiry of the lease period in 1972. The issue had snowballed into a major controversy. The Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Haryana Amendment Bill, 2013, was passed by the House today, ensuring that no farmer was displaced.

Presenting the Bill in the House, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who also holds Panchayats portfolio, said grave injustice was done to the farmers brought to Haryana in 1952-53 for turning chunks of barren land into fertile farms. After the lease period of 20 years, many of them were either evicted or served notices to vacate the land chunks the ownership of which vested with panchayats. The farmers lost the case even in the Supreme Court and had been facing uncertain future for decades.

“Being the son of a farmer myself, I know how it hurts if someone takes away the land that you have nurtured for years. These farmers came to Haryana to help in the Grow More Food Scheme in early 1950s and it will be unfair if they are dislodged from the land that has been cultivated by them for generations,” he said.

He showered praise on Haryana Finance Minister HS Chatha, who, he said, had worked hard to find an amicable solution to the problem.

About 3,500 Punjabi families, mainly Sikhs, who had been facing eviction belonged to either the Pehowa Constituency of Chatha or the Guhla Assembly segment that is with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD). There are 26 villages in Pehowa and 14 in Ghula where the land in dispute is located. Farmers of five villages were uprooted by the Chautala government, while others had been facing eviction.

Hooda also brought in a resolution asking the House to appeal to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to rehabilitate all Punjabi and Sikh farmers that had been evicted from Kutch years after they were settled there by former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri. The resolution was unanimously passed by the House in the absence of any Opposition and would be forwarded to Modi for consideration.