Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, on Thursday, issued stern instructions to all the field officers to expedite the campaign for reclaiming encroached panchayat land. Presiding over an important meeting with all divisional directors and DDPOs at his office here at Punjab Civil Secretariat, S. Laljit Singh Bhullar asked to furnish their respective progress reports within 15 days.
The Cabinet Minister informed that so far, the department has successfully vacated 11,859 acres of panchayat land from illegal possession. However, possession warrants for 6,657 acres of panchayat land across the state have been issued, but no action has been taken yet by the field officers. He assertively directed the district officials to promptly address these pending possession warrants.
While taking block-wise report of encroached panchayat land, the Rural Development and Panchayat Minister noted that cases pertaining to 6,926 acres of panchayat land are still pending with the DDPOs under Section-7 of the PP Act, while cases under Section-11 related to the possession of 20,734 acres are pending with the Divisional Directors and Additional Deputy Commissioners.
Besides this, no case has been registered under Section-7 of the PP Act about 42,381 acres of land. The Cabinet Minister instructed the concerned officials to expedite the resolution of pending cases through prompt hearings and take action in remaining cases.
Emphasizing effective follow-up on pending cases in higher courts, S. Laljit Singh Bhullar directed the senior field officers to personally attend court hearings, adding that BDPOs will attend hearing of cases in high court, while DDPO level officers will attend Supreme Court hearings to ensure the effective representation of the department.
S. Bhullar categorically directed that an investigation should be conducted regarding some irregularities in the revenue records related to the ownership rights of panchayat land. "If this has been done deliberately, stern action will be taken against the erring officials", said the Cabinet Minister.
He asked all the Deputy Commissioners and SSPs to provide necessary administrative support to the department officials involved in vacating encroached Panchayat land. Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Finance Commissioner Rural Development and Panchayat Mr. Tejveer Singh and other department officials.