In continuation of the directions of Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann to vacate every inch of Panchayat land from the illegal possession, Punjab Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, on Tuesday, drove a tractor to evict the 100 acres of panchayat land at Village Sundran in Dera Bassi Block. After completing the eviction procedure, the Cabinet Minister informed that panchayat land, measuring 100 acres, was encroached upon by the residents.
He said the land falls in residential and industrial areas and has market value of about Rs.100 crores. He added that the rest of the 12 acres is under court stay and the officers have been asked to follow up the case strongly to get our right back.
S. Bhullar said that the Rural Development and Panchayat Department has acquired tremendous success in its drive against the encroachments in the state, and so far, a total of 12100 acres of land has been taken back from illegal possession and handed over to the Gram Panchayats of the concerned villages to lease it to the local residents as well as increase income of Panchayat.
He said the move against the encroachments will continue till the eviction of 100 percent of panchayat land and the department officials have been asked to complete the formalities and dispose of the cases with them at the earliest besides following the suits filed in various Courts by the encroachers regularly to strengthen the claim of the department. He warned the officers who are conniving with the encroachers to maintain the illegal possession, would be dealt strictly.
The minister said, the land took in possession from the encroachers helping the department to generate more revenue sources, adding that the department would continue its drive against the encroachers. The Cabinet Minister also warned the encroachers that in case they again tried to illegally occupy the evicted land, FIRs would be lodged against them.
The officers present on the site included ADC (Rural Development) Sonam Chaudhary, Joint Director (Shamlat Cell) Jagwinderjit Singh Sandhu, SP (Rural) Manpreet Singh, ASP Dera Bassi Ms Darpan Ahluwalia, DDPO Amaninder Singh Chauhan, BDPO Ravneet Kaur and Naib Tehsildar Harinderjit Singh.