25,000 acres under illegal occupation: Punjab Govt set to go after VIP 'land sharks'

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, May 13

The AAP government will not just be restricting itself to free illegally occupied panchayat lands from the hoi polloi. Within the next 10 days, the government is planning a major action against politicians, from across the political spectrum, and serving and retired bureaucrats and police officers.

Unlawful possession

15,000 acres under illegal occupation in Mohali

10,000 acres in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar

CM Bhagwant Mann likely to meet forest officials today

CM Bhagwant Mann is likely to hold a meeting with officers of the Forest Department on Saturday, where instructions are to be given to them to free up all forest land that had been illegally occupied, especially the land near Chandigarh.

Once the panchayat land meant for cultivation is freed from encroachers, the government says it will go after VIP “land sharks”. The government has already identified almost 25,000 acres under illegal occupation of these politicians and other VIPs. Of these, 15,000 acres are in Mohali alone, and the rest 10,000 acres in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar.

Talking to The Tribune here today, Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said while many politicians, bureaucrats and police officers, including retired ones, had built farmhouses in Mohali district by illegally usurping panchayat lands, in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, the “erstwhile VIPs have usurped panchayat lands that fell in the vicinity of the municipal limits of these cities. As the cities expanded, these people started commercially exploiting these lands by selling these for making colonies to builders. What I did in Siswan a few days ago (freeing panchayat land) was a trailer. These people should be beware — faujan aa rahian ne sarkari zameena chhudaan vaaste (be ready, forces are on their way to get government land freed),” he said. The Tribune has been highlighting this issue in its columns.

The minister said the government was also committed to freeing up the forest land under illegal occupation. “Every day, the CM demands a report on the land that we have freed from encroachments. Since April 25 (after we started the drive to remove encroachers), 1,050 acres have been freed. If the land that is vested back to the government is cultivable, it will be auctioned for cultivation to farmers. If it has commercial value, we will look at exploiting it commercially and the state will earn huge revenue,” he said.

The minister said during this month, the department’s concentration is on auctioning off land to farmers and ensuring the socially and economically disadvantaged sections got their full share of land for cultivation.