HC appoints IAS officer, 2 others to decide cases

May 11, 2018|Tribune News Service| Chandigarh

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday appointed a woman IAS officer, Tanu Kashyap, along with two other officers, Hardyal Singh Chatha and Amardeep Singh Bains, for deciding cases related to illegal possession of land on the periphery of the city.

The move comes amid allegations of illegal possession of land by politicians, bureaucrats, senior police officials and other big wheels on the periphery of Chandigarh. Kashyap is posted as the Director, Rural Development and Panchayat Department, while Chatha is Fatehagarh Sahib ADC and Bains is the Deputy Director. The Punjab Government, on a previous date of hearing, had filed a status report by way of an affidavit by the Director, Rural Development and Panchayat, Sibin C.

Among other things, a list was furnished of officers to whom the responsibility of the Collector and
Appellate Authority under the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act could be assigned.

The names of the officers were finalised by the Division Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Shekhar Dhawan after seeking consent of senior advocate ML Sarin, assisting the court as amicus curiae.

The matter was brought to the notice of the High Court by Nayagoan resident Kuldip Singh. Accusing a senior police functionary in a land grab bid in Nayagaon, he had sought protection, while praying for the registration of an FIR and a CBI probe into the dealings.

The inquiry was entrusted to the ADGP, after Justice Ranjit Singh of the High Court took cognisance of the matter. Justice Ranjit Singh had asked the ADGP to lay emphasis on Nayagaon, Zirakpur, Mohali, Kansal and the Koraran area. The Judge had added: “It will also need an investigation to see as to what is the source of acquisition”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/chandigarh/hc-appoints-ias-officer-2-others-to-decide-cases/587585.html

On HC nudge, Punjab govt forms panel to free land grabbed by ‘high and mighty’

Sukhdeep Kaur|Hindustan Times|Chandigarh| May 5, 2018

After years of no action, two reports on land grab by the “high and mighty” in the periphery of Chandigarh have been finally dug out. It comes after the Punjab and Haryana High Court told the government, “Our hands are not tied and we will go till the end of the matter.”

The report of Justice Kuldip Singh, a former Supreme Court judge, had named several politicians, police officers and bureaucrats who had grabbed panchayat (shamlat or common) land. The HC had formed a special tribunal under Justice Kuldip but the SAD-BJP regime led by Parkash Singh Badal government challenged it in the Supreme Court. The SC did not stay the operation of the tribunal but, after submitting two interim reports, Justice Kuldip expressed his inability to continue due to health issues. His probe had highlighted land grab in villages such as Nada, Karoran and Bartana in the periphery of Chandigarh to show how record mutations were done in connivance with revenue and panchayat officers.

Now, a cabinet sub-committee formed to ensure maintenance of government assets and lands — it is headed by local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, and has rural development minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and revenue minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria as members — has entrusted a panel under Justice SS Saron (retd), who heads the Punjab Revenue Commission, and former director general of police (DGP) Chandra Shekar, who probed land grab by officers in the UT’s periphery, to find out and free government land under illegal occupation.

While the tribunal was set up for all of Punjab, Chander Shekar’s report was a vigilance probe into land deals in and around Chandigarh.

Also Read | Encroached land in Mohali is worth more than Punjab debt: Sidhu

“The HC has asked the Punjab government about the follow-up action on the reports. I had submitted 12 reports after examining revenue records. Nearly 25,000 acres were illegally occupied in Mohali district alone,” Chandra Shekar said, adding, “Going by the average of Mohali, an estimated five to six lakh acres of government land is under illegal occupation throughout Punjab.”

Sidhu said the government would nail anyone found guilty of land grab, “irrespective of clout”. He added, “The Badal government swept everything under the carpet. Two cabinet sub-committees were set up on the matter by the previous regime too, but no action was taken. There was no audit of the land lease agreements too. In some cases, there are no agreements. Land grabbed in Mohali alone exceeds the entire debt burden of Punjab — nearly Rs 2 lakh crore.”

The cabinet sub-committee has asked all departments and every board and corporation for details of land under encroachment, under litigation and that which is not utilised. Mayors of all 10 municipal corporations and a representative each from the revenue, water resources management, local government, rural development and panchayat, forest, and public works (B&R) departments, and the state waqf board will be part of the panel to be headed by Justice Saron.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/on-hc-nudge-punjab-govt-forms-panel-to-free-land-grabbed-by-high-and-mighty/story-6KHSj0ZY69uRIUSKzWY0OK.html

Cabinet Sub-Committee on Encroachments Calls for Justice Kuldip Tribunal Report

Tribune News Service | April 16, 2018 | Chandigarh

The Cabinet sub-committee set up the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to crack down on unauthorised occupation of government lands has called for the Justice Kuldip Singh Tribunal report on illegal transfer of hundreds of acres of common village land in name of individuals, covering 38 villages on the outskirts of Chandigarh.

This could spell trouble for or influential people, including politicians, bureaucrats and police officers in whose name hundreds of acres of common village land has been illegally transferred in the villages.

The panel in its meeting held here on Monday decided to seek expert advice of Justice S.S. Saron (retd) and former DGP Chander Shekhar who would also be attending the next meeting. Local Bodies Minister Navjiot Singh Sidhu, Rural Development Minister Tripat Rajinder Bajwa and Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, who are member of the sub-committee, attended today’s meeting.

While deciding to extend the purview of the sub-committee beyond the rural development and local bodies department, the panel asked for identifying the departments whose assets have been illegally encroached upon. Sidhu said the data pertaining to all the government departments whose lands are under illegal occupation must be submitted in the next meeting. The panel also asked for details of the departments where the land despite under ownership of the government had not been entered in the mutation records.

Before formulating any policy, it is necessary to ascertain that how much of the government land is under illegal occupation irrespective of the department, said Sidhu. The next meeting has been called on May 3.

Source : http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/cabinet-sub-committee-on-encroachments-calls-for-justice-kuldip-tribunal-report/574819.html

Demarcation of village common land: Panchayat department to re-install Burjis

The Indian Express|March 19, 2018|Mohali

THE RURAL Development and Panchayat department is finding it tough to identify shamlat land (village common land) in the villages as the Burjis (the stones which were installed to demark the land) are missing. The department is now going to find the Burjis and demarcate the shamlat land again. It was one of the reasons for illegal encroachment on government land, said officials.

The financial commissioner of the department Anurag Verma said the Burjis in villages were common properties and the department will use the panchayat funds to find and re-install the Burjis. He said many Burjis were misplaced or damaged due to which the department is finding it tough to identify the village common land in the state. “Many demarcation cases are pending for a long time. After finding these Burjis our department will demark the shamlat land in the villages, it will help us to get the illegal encroachments removed from the village common lands,” Verma added.

Verma further added that the Burjis are included in common properties so the panchayat funds will be used to find and re-install the Burjis . He added that all the deputy directors and district development and panchayat officers has been asked to utilise the funds available with panchayats for re-construction of these Burjis . Verma explained that when the land was demarcated, the government installed the Burjis which classify the village common lands and the private lands.

http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/demarcation-of-village-common-land-panchayat-department-to-re-install-burjis/

Last Stretch of Punjab Forests Threatened as PLPA Cover Expires

Jayashree Nandi | TNN | January 30, 2018 

NEW DELHI: Forests in about 16 villages in the ecologically rich Shivalik foothills around Chandigarh may be left vulnerable to destruction after February 2, 2018. These villages are currently protected under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) by way of a notification by the Punjab government dated February 3, 2003 which expires on Feb 2, 2018. The process of re-notifying these areas hasn't started yet.

Even before re-notification is started, the Punjab forest department has started issuing permissions for tree cutting, eco-tourism projects, mixed-use tourism projects, and others in some of the villages (Tarapur, Karoran, Majiran and others) claiming that PLPA will not apply to these villages from February 2. These villages are also recorded as "forests"according to an affidavit submitted by the Punjab government in the TN Godavarman case in SC.

The permission letters given by the forest department on January 22, 2018 accessed by TOI state that these activities can be carried out by those who sought permission after February 2, 2018 once the 2003 notification expires, "no restrictions of the PLPA will be applicable on the expiry of the same (notification) and in compliance of the judgement dated February 2, 2017 in Gram Panchayat Majrian and others Vs union of India passed by the High Court."

The forest department is citing the high court judgement to reason that all areas cannot be considered forests, there are agricultural lands too and the areas cannot be re-notified without a "scientific study." "We are not sure if these areas will be notified again. The high court judgement states that a scientific study should be carried out to indicate the state of soil erosion here. If there is no soil erosion they can be delisted.

After the 2003 notification, any activity can be carried out here. If there is no intermediate regulatory notification what can we do?," asked Harsh Kumar, chief conservator of forests (Hills), Punjab. A special tribunal report constituted by Haryana high court in 2012 headed by Justice Kuldip Singh had also highlighted that these were 'shamlat' common lands there were attempts to change land use by individuals and private parties in many of these villages, some were even illegally privatised.

Environmental experts said if there is no move to re-notify these areas as "forests" immediately, Punjab will lose its little stretch of biodiversity and forests left. "Punjab has the lowest forest cover in the country at 3.52%, it should be trying to protect whatever little it has left. About 95% of that forest cover is located in this region protected by the 2003 notification. These forests protect against soil erosion, act as groundwater recharge sites, a rich wildlife habitat and biodiversity reserves. Beginning with Jammu, to Punjab and up to Uttarakhand it is a contiguous belt which needs to be conserved,"said Chetan Agarwal, an environmental analyst, adding that "Punjab government had shown these villages as recorded forests in the Godavarman case in SC. How can they be removed now?"

Punjab forest department officials said there were no talks of re-notification, some studies of soil erosion status had been carried in a few villages but not all. The permission letters issued by the forest department are also silent on the applicability of the Forest Conservation Act to these forests.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/law-expires-shivalik-foothills-in-peril/articleshow/62703471.cms

Illegal Encroachment: AAP Demands implementation of Justice Kuldeep Singh Report

UNI | Jan 27, 2018

Chandigarh, Jan 27 (UNI) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday demanded to implement Punjab and Haryana High Court monitored Justice Kuldeep Singh interim report on illegal encroachment on Panchayati and forest land related to Punjab government in surrounding areas of Chandigarh.

Addressing the media, Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Sukhpal Singh Khaira and senior AAP leader Kanwar Sandhu said that in recent years multiple cases have been witnessed where the powerful political people, bureaucrats and others have encroached the land violating section 42(A) and the Punjab land Preservation Act-1900.

He said that the Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 2007 had passed an order prohibiting the registration of land in forest area, but even after that the cases were witnessed where illegal registration was done by the officers in compliance with the political leaders.

Mr Sandhu said that a committee was formed by the Punjab and Haryana High court in 2012 under the Justice Kuldeep Singh and he submitted his interim reports in 2013. He said that till now nothing has been done on the reports submitted by Justice Kuldeep Singh and no action was initiated against those violated the law. 

He said that as per the record 2275 acre land of just village Nayagaon was illegally converted on the names of different people. 

He demanded that the reports of Justice Kuldeep Singh must be probed and a judicial inquiry must be initiated in the regard. He also demanded that all the registries and transfers happened after 2013 must also probed. He requested Punjab and Haryana High court to take suo-moto cognizance in the matter.

Speaking on the recent decision of Punjab cabinet to shut down 1647 out of 2147 seva kendra across the state, the AAP leaders said that the decision shows that the government was not at all serious about the state affairs and concerns of the people of state. 

Mr Sandhu said that thousands of employees of seva kendras will be rendered jobless and common, poor and needy citizens will have to face hardships at the hands of multiple offices for getting their petty jobs done.

Disapproving the Punjab cabinet’s decisions of putting electricity meters on tubewells and sending amount of power subsidy in farmer’s account, Mr Khaira said that it was nothing but a step towards withdrawing the power subsidy provided to the state farmers. 

Mr Khaira said that the move of government was mainly to shift the focus of farmers agitating for debt waver as promised by the govt. He said that before trying to burden the already troubled farmers of the state, the Chief Minister must ask his ministers and Congress MLAs to shun the farm subsidy.

Source : http://www.uniindia.com/illegal-encroachment-aap-demands-implementation-of-justice-kuldeep-singh-report/states/news/1119173.html#Et4wp87d2x7zcbJ8.99

A first: UT comes out with data on panchayat land

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26

Now, it will not be easy to encroach upon panchayat land in the UT villages.

In a first of its kind initiative, the Chandigarh Administration has consolidated the data on total panchayat land and its existing land use at the site. Officials on conducting a detailed field survey of the panchayat land measuring around 560 kanals found that 33 kanals of land was under encroachments and spread across nine villages.

Following the survey of all specific land details, the UT had started the process of getting land freed from encroachments, said Danish Ashraf, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), East, who along with two trainee IAS officers, Parth Gupta and Kriti Garg, have carried out the detailed exercise.

Efforts are being made to digitally scan the revenue record to check if the Rural Department is keeping an eye on the encroachments being made. In the past, during demolition drives it was found that the panchayat land and other vacant land of different governnmemt departments were encroached upon in nine villages — Dhanas, Khuda Lahora, Khuda Jassu, Khuda Alisher, Kaimbwala, Behlana, Daria, and Maulai Jagran.

The total land under use such as government buildings, area under ponds, religious places, cremation ground and roads has also been given in the details. The Khuda Jassu and Khuda Lahora have the largest chunk of panchayat land, measuring 150 kanals and 130 kanals, respectively.

Following a presentation of the consolidation report to the UT Adviser, the officials have been asked to also come out with booklet on the information and work further on the subject so that the information remains in the public domain.

Already faced with meagre resources, gram panchayats of different villages in the UT had been in the past finding it difficult to free their prime land from encroachers. Running in several crores, the panchayats can generate their own resources by leasing out the land for commercial activity.

Sources in the Chandigarh Administration said that a number of encroachments were inside the ‘lal dora’ of respective village.

Few years ago, a study conducted by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) had revealed that prime chunks of land were under encroachments. 

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/chandigarh/a-first-ut-comes-out-with-data-on-panchayat-land/72862.html

Housing units on shamlat land being sold, inquiry marked

Smriti Sharma Vasudeva : Chandigarh, Tue Jan 01 2013, 23:39 hrs

The illegal sale of housing units on shamlat land, with hints of a possible land scam, has caught the attention of the UT officials who have now marked an inquiry to the UT police into it. 

 

Taking note of the alleged sale racket run by three contractors who “sold” out dwelling units of varying sizes, including two rooms, single room etc on Shamlat land in Dhanas village after taking money of amount between Rs 30,000 - 50,000, the Deputy Commissioner marked an inquiry to the UT police. 

 

The alleged nexus recently caught the attention of the authorities after a team of the UT estate office and the Land Acquisition office went to carry out a demolition drive for razing the marble market in the area. 

 

Several residents of the same area including Raj Samuel, Subey Singh, Hari Krishan, Davinder Singh and others handed over a complaint to the officials there stating that they have paid Rs 30,000 each for a house in the illegal colony. They stated in the letter that they paid the amount after they were “assured” by the sellers that “nobody will move them from their houses”. 

 

Sensing a bigger scam behind this, the Deputy Commissioner cum UT Estate officer on Monday forwarded the complaint letter which mentions the names of three persons who have been taking money to the SSP, UT Police to enquire into the matter and take appropriate action. The complaint letter, also with the Land Acquisition officer Tilak Raj, mentions the names of Ravinder and two others as the ones behind the illegal sale. 

 

Speaking with Chandigarh Newsline, DC Mohammad Shayin said, “We have marked an inquiry to the UT police into the allegations of selling land illegally. Also, since the entire colony has come up on the government land and some of the occupants have stay orders from the court, we will also try to get the stay vacated,” he added. 

 

As per the complaint which has been sent to office of the DC, these houses, over 60 of them have come up in the recent past on the land measuring five acres. 

 

The complaint also states that besides the lump-sum amount paid by ever occupant, the contractor who manages the entire housing is also taking a rent of Rs 600 from each occupant. 

© 2013 The Indian Express Limited. All rights reserved

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