Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government will further intensify the drive to remove the encroachments on panchayat land, asserted S. Laljit Singh Bhullar while assuming charge as Minister of the newly assigned Rural Development and Panchayats department at Vikas Bhawan, SAS Nagar.
Expressing gratitude towards Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann and the Party National Convenor & Delhi Chief Minister Mr. Arvind Kejriwal for assigning the new responsibility, S. Laljit Singh Bhullar assured that he would discharge the responsibility with full dedication.
He said that the department will focus on illegally encroached big land chunks on priority basis, while directing the officials of the department to identify such chunks and submit report at the earliest. While presiding over the maiden meeting of the officials of the department, the Cabinet Minister was apprised that around 1349 acres of government land has been freed from encroachment so far under the second phase.
The officials apprised that last year, 9030 acres of land was freed from encroachment, the average market value of this land is around Rs.2709 crore.Bhullar categorically mentioned that Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Mann has already announced that the state government is committed to freeing the land from illegal encroachments.
Influencial people, who violated the rules and encroached on expensive government lands, will not be spared at any cost as this land is not the ancestral property of anyone, he added. S. Bhullar, while gathering information about working of various wings of the department and running departmental schemes, also sought active support and cooperation of the officials for the progress of the state.
Together we will take Punjab to new heights of progress, he added. The Rural Development and Panchayats Minister also asked the officials to make the MGNREGA scheme more transparent besides adding more eligible beneficiaries under the scheme.
Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included, Financial Commissioner Mr. K. Siva Prasad, Director Mr. Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Joint Development Commissioner Mr. Amit Kumar, Deputy Secretary Mr. Harkanwaljit Singh, Additional Director Sanjeev Garg, Joint Director Mr. Jatinder Singh Brar and other officers of the department.