13 yrs on, 168-acre govt land freed from illegal possession

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 27

Political-bureaucratic “nexus” delayed the transfer of mutation of 168 acres of prime land worth Rs 100 crore from Moranwali village panchayat to the Sunam Municipal Council (MC) for 13 years.

After efforts of Sunam halqa in charge Daman Thind Bajwa, the mutation was transferred to the MC on Tuesday, but now, the administration faces a big challenge of removal of encroachments.

Some senior officials told The Tribune that in 2006, at the time of division of Morawali village into five villages, the panchayat had 168 acres of land. But the then authorities of the Panchayat and Revenue Departments, with alleged connivance of land mafia, divided only 22 acres of panchayat land in five villages, namely Bishanpura, Singhpura, Tibbi Ravidaspura, Bakhtaur Nagar and Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar as per the population of these villages.

The then officials allegedly allowed land mafia to keep the remaining land under illegal possession. But later, after the expansion of the Sunam MC in 2008, the land came under the MC, but no action was taken to transfer the mutation of the land from the panchayat to the MC.

“In January 2020, after we got to know that prime land worth Rs 100 crore is under illegal possession, we started collecting details. The then officials connived with politicians to help them grab government land. Finally, on Tuesday with, the support of CM Capt Amarinder Singh, we have succeeded to transfer the mutation of all 168 acres of land under the name of the Sunam MC from Moranwali village,” said Bajwa.

She alleged politicians of various parties have been pressurising and threatening her family with dire consequences. “We have started removing encroachments,” Bajwa said.

Executive Officer of MC Maninderpal Singh said, “We will take the possession of land in the coming days.”