Amritsar: Farmers' body protests changes in village common land rules

Amritsar, October 1

Members of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) burnt an effigy of the state government to protest against the recent amendments in the Punjab Village Common Land Regulations here on Saturday.

General secretary of the organisation Sarwan Singh Pandher said the decision to bring “Shamlat Deh” and “Jumla Mushtarka Malki” lands under the control of panchayats should be revoked immediately.

He demanded that the ownership rights should be granted to cultivators, who are tilling these lands for the past many years.

He said the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee had been fighting for the rights of the settlers for long and a demand in this regard had been made on various occasions. He said thousands of families, who were earning their livelihood from tilling these lands, should not be evicted.

Pandher said the government had miserably failed to get the encroached land freed from big wigs. “Where will these farmers go when their lands will be taken back and given to panchayats?” questioned Pandher.