Sanjeev
Verma, Hindustan Times
Chandigarh,
May 20, 2012
Hearing
a bunch of petitions filed by the Satbgarh gram panchayat of Dera
Bassi tehsil in SAS Nagar district challenging illegal possession of
"shamlat deh"(village common land) and Ghaggar riverbed,
measuring around 98 acres, by Shipra Estates and other private
parties, the Punjab and Haryana high court has put stay on possession
of land till July.
The
decision came from the division bench headed by justice Rajive Bhalla
last week while proceeding ex-parte against Shipra Estates as counsel
for the developers failed to appear for hearing of the case.
Maximum
piece of land under challenge had been purchased by Shipra Estates
from villagers for constructing a residential colony in 2007. As the
developers had not started construction at the site till date, it had
now been restrained by the high court from raising any construction
and further sale of land.
Petitioners,
including gram panchayat, Sukhwinder Pal and Avtar Singh Nagla, had
challenged the orders passed by the director, rural development and
panchayats, on May 18, 2011, and orders dated July 25, 2006, by the
collector-cum-divisional director, rural development and panchayats,
Patiala. The orders, which had given possession of the land in
question to the private parties instead of village panchayat, have
been stayed by the high court.
During
the hearing of case, the bench also observed that "Gair mumkin
Ghaggar" (land around riverbed of Ghaggar and not cultivable)
had also been sold to the developers.
The
bench, while finding the presence of advocate general, Punjab, Ashok
Aggarwal in the court questioned him as to what had made the
authorities to sell even the "rivers" of the state to
developers. To this, the advocate general assured the court of that
he would look into the case and apprise it about the facts.
The
petitioners had submitted that the private parties had filed a
petition in front of the collector-cum-divisional director, rural
development and panchayats, Patiala, for declaring them as owners of
the land in question stating that they were in possession of the land
prior to January 26, 1950, and the authorities passed orders in their
favour in 2006 after which the land was sold to Shipra Estates in
2007.
Later,
the order was challenged by the gram panchayat of Satbgarh before the
director, rural development and panchayats, which was upheld by the
director on May 18, 2011.
As
per village panchayat, since the sarpanch and panchayat member
Naranjan Singh were beneficiaries of this land, they did not pursue
the matter properly before the authorities. It was informed that
since 1951-52 till date "jamabandies"(revenue records), the
land in question is described as "shamlat".
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