Coerced into giving up 417 acres, which we and our ancestors had been cultivating since 1904: Villagers

Fatehgarh Sahib, May 17

Days after Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats Kuldep Singh Dhaliwal claimed villagers of Chaleri Kalan here had voluntarily surrendered 417 acres of panchayat land, which they and their ancestors had been cultivating since 1904, the farmers today claimed they were coerced into handing over the land to the government.

Will fight it out: SAD

The SAD will raise the issue with the government and fight it out politically and legally to safeguard the farmers’ interests. Prem Singh Chandumajra, SAD leader

During a meeting with SAD leader Prem Singh Chandumajra, the villagers alleged they were marginal farmers and made both ends meet by tilling the land that had been made fertile by the sweat and toil of their ancestors.

Chandumajra said the SAD would raise the issue with the government and fight it out politically and legally to safeguard the farmers’ interests.

Addressing mediapersons, Chandumajra warned the government against harassing small farmers and said it should instead focus on ‘big sharks’ who had been occupying thousands of acres.

He said the government should start a campaign to get the land vacated from politically-influential people. “It was unethical to snatch away the bread and butter from small farmers, instead of providing them with relief owing to low yield this year,” he said, adding if “harassment” of farmers didn’t stop, the Akalis would start a fight against the government.

Meanwhile, former Bassi Pathana MLA Justice Nirmal Singh (retd) has termed the move to get panchayat land vacated from encroachers a “political stunt”.

He said little had been to vacate the land from big sharks who had built colonies on such land or sold it. No cases had been registered against those who had tampered with records to convert the common land into private land.

He demanded that one-third of the panchayat land, which was to be reserved for the Scheduled Caste as per the law, should be given to SC scheduled caste cooperative societies for cultivation on five-year lease. — TNS

‘Stop targeting small farmers’

Jalandhar: Congress’ Bholath MLA Sukhpal Khaira on Tuesday urged the government to stop recovering panchayat land from small and landless farmers and instead act against big sharks. Khaira called upon small farmers, facing pressure to vacate panchayat land that they had been tilling for years, to assemble at Gurdwara Amb Sahib in Mohali on May 22, where a panel of lawyers would be there to provide legal help.

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