IP Singh, TNN Sep 18, 2013, 08.20PM IST
JALANDHAR: As farmers cultivating river land in Punjab have started receiving notices for eviction, it is coming out that it was a case pertaining to encroachment of a village pond in Rohar Jagir, then district Patiala and now in district Fatehgarh Sahib, which went to the Supreme Court, and the latter, in its decision in January 2011, not only held that encroachments be cleared from panchayat and village common lands but also scrapped the letter of September 26, 2007 which promulgated the policy to transfer ownership rights to the farmers cultivating river lands owned by the provincial government.
"This
policy was specifically for river lands, that too owned by the
provincial government. However, it was also scrapped by the SC after
the appellant's lawyer referred to it to strengthen his case of
getting relief for encroachment on village pond," said advocate
Iqbal Singh Gill of Ludhiana who had been following the issue with
revenue department after the SC decision.
"We
even met revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia to explain the
fallouts of the issue holding that there was a difference in
encroachment on gram panchayat lands and farmers cultivating river
lands and government should address the issue by filing a curative
petition in the SC or take other legal measures," Gill said.
SC
bench headed by Justice Markandey Katju had come down heavily upon
the official machinery and state governments for colluding with
encroachers. In the specific case in SC, district development and
panchayat officer cum collector had sought to regularize the
encroachment by realizing cost of it. This was challenged and all the
appellate authorities including the HC and SC held that gram
panchayat and lower level officials colluded with the encroachers.
When
contacted, financial commissioner revenue NS Kang admitted that no
petition was filed in the SC to get any relief after scrapping of the
policy by the SC.
Gill
and revenue department officials held that the SC order had
ramifications for thousands of farmers who happened to be small
farmers but the state government failed to find an effective remedy.
"This reflects that the state government did not bring it in the
notice of the SC that its policy did not at all pertain to
regularization of encroachment on village common lands and now the
people would suffer," Gill said.
"As
of now all the farmers including those who had got ownership rights
under the policy stood affected and state government needs to clarify
the situation," said a revenue department official.
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