Bid to free 45,000 acres of prime land in Punjab

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, May 19

Nearly 45,000 acres of prime land is under illegal occupation, which the Aam Aadmi Party government is hoping to take back.

According to information, while 22,500 acres of forest land and 21,103 acres of panchayati land is illegally occupied. Besides, around 1,000 acres of the Irrigation Department, 239 acres of Defence land and 46 acres owned by the power department is also under illegal occupation.

Another 42,606 properties of the Wakf Board are also under illegal occupation. The total value of the land is believed to be in thousands of crores.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today gave an ultimatum to encroachers to vacate land by May 31.

“During the tenure of the previous governments, influential persons had encroached on prime government land, while the governments turned a blind eye to it. But we have a zero-tolerance policy towards this and all government land will be freed,” he said.

Last year, the AAP government had started a drive to free the encroached land and freed 9,030 acres of panchayati land, though a stay was granted by different courts in favour of encroachers.

Information available with the Rural Development Department shows that a major portion of the remaining recovered land has been leased that has helped the state realise Rs 5.23 crore.

Rural Development Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said a data base of the encroached land had been prepared and initially they would take into possession 6,292 acres, which was not under any litigation. “The possession warrants for the land have been issued by DDPOs in each district,” he said.

Asked about the CMs announcement on also taking action against VIPs encroaching on government land, Dhaliwal reiterated that even VIPs won’t be spared. “Records of all such VIP encroachers is also being examined and legal opinion is being sought on getting this land freed, most of which is in areas surrounding Chandigarh,” he added.