B A T H I N D A    E D I T I O N

Encroachments on panchayat lands in Moga district 
Moga, October 14
The rural development and panchayat department has removed encroachments on more than 300 acres of shamlat land from many villages of Moga district in the last couple of years to streamline the process of auctioning it on lease for cultivation every year. Only seven cases of encroachments on 5 acres and 5 kanals of land were pending before the Collector’s court. A dispute over alleged encroachment on 108 acres of grazing common land in Saleena village has not yet been settled by the department.

3 occupants of a car killed in road mishap
Barnala, October 14
Three occupants of a Swift car died when their vehicle rammed into a trailer, parked on the road, on Barnala-Raikot road near Gangohar village last night.

Encroachments on panchayat lands in Moga district 
Kulwinder Sandhu
Tribune News Service

Moga, October 14
The rural development and panchayat department has removed encroachments on more than 300 acres of shamlat land from many villages of Moga district in the last couple of years to streamline the process of auctioning it on lease for cultivation every year.

Only seven cases of encroachments on 5 acres and 5 kanals of land were pending before the Collector’s court. A dispute over alleged encroachment on 108 acres of grazing common land in Saleena village has not yet been settled by the department. A vigilance probe into the illegal sale of hundreds of acres of panchayat land at Charik village has also gathered dust.

The DDPO of Moga, Ravinder Pal Singh Sandhu, while claiming that the department has managed to remove encroachments from hundreds of acres of shamlat land in the villages during the last couple of years, said only seven cases of encroachments on 5 acres and 5 kanals of land were pending before his court.

The details of these encroachments are: 1 kanal 10 marla land in Bughipura village, 6 kanal 3 marla in Nathuwala Garbi village, 2 acre 4 kanal in Cheeda village, 1 marla in Badhni Khurd village, 1 acre 4 kanal in Nurpur Hakima village, 16 marla in Mastewala village and 4 kanal 4 marla land in Rajewala village.

“I have asked the BDPOs concerned to visit the spot and prepare a detailed report of these encroachments and send the report to his office so that legal action can be taken accordingly to evacuate this land from the encroachers,” he said.

Meanwhile, in October 2012, the Vigilance Bureau initiated a preliminary inquiry into the illegal sale of hundreds of acres of panchayat land at Charik village in the district. More than 900 acres of land in the village belongs to the panchayat. Notices were served on as many as seven tehsildars/naib tehsildars, including the present tehsildar of Moga, Madan Mohan, seeking a reply from them on executing sale deeds and testifying mutations of the panchayat land in the name of private parties. Since then, neither the details of the preliminary inquiry were not revealed nor a criminal case registered on it.

Two years back, the then DDPO Ranbir Singh Mudhal, in his report, found that successive BDPOs of the Moga-II block failed to protect 108 acres of the village common land (grazing land) of nearby Saleena village, a major portion of which was sold to influential persons from time to time in the past 60 years. The DDPO forwarded his report to the director of panchayat department demanding departmental action against the successive BDPOs for their negligence and also insisted on legal intervention to protect the panchayat property but no action has been taken so far.

Last year, the Supreme Court also ordered to look into the illegal sale of this grazing land but the district administration maintained that the ownership rights of the disputed land left out by the people for grazing were not transferred to the panchayat. Therefore, it was not a common land. Moreover, the high court also ruled in favour of the purchasers who bought this land. However, a magisterial probe suggested that the department move the apex court against the high court’s decision for getting the ownership rights.

A woman sarpanch and four other residents of Randiala village of Kot ise Khan block in the district was also booked on April 17 this year for allegedly taking possession of a piece of government land in the village.

On the other hand, the panchayat department has failed to recover the rent regularly of more than 75 shops in the past few years, which were leased out by the panchayat samitis at various locations in the district. An estimated amount of Rs one crore was pending for recovery as on March 31 this year.

Interestingly, many of the tenants further leased out these shops illegally. One of the shops originally leased out to Om Parkash was now in the possession of Surjit Singh. Another shop leased out to one Gurpal Singh was being run by Pooran Singh without permission.

Lakhs of rupees were pending against eight shops leased at tempo union near the railway lines, 20 shops leased at the Dussehra ground near telephone exchange, 24 shops in main bazaar of the Moga city. Besides, 26 shops in Ajiwal town and 30 shops in Kot-ise-Khan and a few others in Baghapurana, Dharamkot and Nihalsinghwala sub-divisions were also defaulters. 

3 occupants of a car killed in road mishap

Barnala, October 14
Three occupants of a Swift car died when their vehicle rammed into a trailer, parked on the road, on Barnala-Raikot road near Gangohar village last night.

Station House Officer (SHO) of Mehal Kalan police station Sardara Singh said the deceased had been identified as Krishan Kumar (Moga), Bal Krishan (Barnala) and the driver of the car Bindu (Ludhiana), who were coming to Barnala from Ludhiana.

The SHO further said the police has registered a case under sections 283, 304-A and 427 of the IPC against the unknown owner of the trailer.— TNS