Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann leads drive to take possession of 2828 acre from encroachers in Majri block of SAS Nagar

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 29

In an unprecedented action, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday personally supervised a government drive to take possession of 2828 acres of illegally encroached prime land worth Rs 350 crore in Majri block of SAS Nagar from 15 influential encroachers, including sons of newly elected MP from Sangrur Simranjit Singh Mann and former Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar.

The Chief Minister, who led the campaign himself to take possession of land in Chotti Badi Naggal village, said this prime land is situated in the foothills and has been illegally occupied by several influential officers and politicians since long. He said that the illegal occupants included Imaanjit Singh Mann, son of Simranjit Singh Mann, who had encroached 125 acres of land and former Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar’s son Harmandeep Singh Dhaliwal, who has encroached five acres of land. Similarly, Bhagwant Mann said that daughter and son-in-law of Sangrur MP have also occupied 28 acres of prime land illegally.

Giving the details of encroachers, the Chief Minister said that 1100 acres of land have been encroached by Fauja Singh, who runs an infrastructure company. He said that other encroachers include Imaan Singh (125 acre), Akur Dhawan (103 acre), Jatinder Singh Dua and Pukhraj Singh Dua (40 acre), Prabhdeep Singh Sandhu, Gobind Singh Sandhu and Nanki Kaur (28 acre), Ripudaman Singh (25 acre), Navdeep Kaur (15 acre), Deepak Bansal (12 acre), KF Farms (11 acre), Tejvir Singh Dhillon (10 acre), Inderjit Singh Dhillon (8 acre), Deepinder Pal Chahal (8 acre), Sandeep Bansal (6 acre), Harmandeep Singh Dhaliwal (5 acre), Manjit Singh Dhanoa (5 acre) and Rita Sharma (4 acre). 

The Chief Minister said that starting from May 1 this year, the state government has so far took possession of 9053 acres of prime land which had been illegally encroached by people. He said that it is a part of poll guarantee of his party as during campaigning they had promised people that all the influential illegal encroachers who have plundered the wealth mercilessly will be brought to book. Taking the opposition to cudgels, Bhagwant Mann said that these parties have always mocked him by raising questions that from where will the funds from all his promises come.

The Chief Minister reminded them that he had always asserted that the funds will come from foothills of Shivaliks, only after the prime land under their possession will be freed. He said that out of these 2828 acre, 265 acre land is plain area whereas 2563 acre is hilly one adding that trees of costly wood are found in abundance here. Bhagwant Mann said that only the influential people who have occupied the land illegally are being removed adding that no tiller of land or poor person who is living here or earning his bread from this place is being displaced.

The Chief Minister complimented the Rural Development Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal for spearheading this campaign. He unequivocally said that this campaign will continue till the entire government land is freed from the encroachers. Bhagwant Mann also announced that a detailed enquiry has been ordered to ascertain how these encroachers had occupied this land adding that the officers who have connived with these encroachers will also be brought to book.

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