NASRALI(LUDHIANA);Residents of this village are angry with the Excise and Taxation Minister Shamsher Singh Dullo who is allegedly forcing them to sell 202 acres to him at the rate of Rs 1 lakh per acre which is one-third of the market price.
The residents allege that the minister is using the police force to put pressure on them and harass them to get the land in question.
Even the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that restrained any obstruction in sowing paddy on the land have not been implemented and the rightful owners are allegedly being prevented from doing so. The police denies the allegations and maintains that the rightful owners have been to get the proper distribution of land done from the authorities concemed.
During a visit to the disputed Jand site last week the Tribune team found a number of residents of the village sitting in dharma on the main road while another group of about 200 women was staging a dhama under a tree 200 yards away from the main road. A strong police contingent headed by two Inspectors forced them to lift the dharma. Police reinforcements were summoned from Khanna.
The police has taken five villagers into custody. Villagers allege that their whereabouts are not being disclosed by the police.
Niranjan Kumar a former Sarpanch of the village said during the consolidation of land holdings in the 1952 the consolidation staff made wrong entries in the revenue records and transferred the land to the village panchayat Nasrali. The village panchayat had been giving this land on lease to different farmers of the village for cultivation. Initially the annual lease money was Rs 20000. But later as the prices of the land started rising the lease money was also raised. It now runs into several lakhs per annum.
The total area transferred to the village panchayat was 273 acres. The villagers had been fighting for their rights. But it was only on June 121992 that the Director Land Records Punjab A.S. Gulati decided the case and ordered the Consolidation Department to make amends and transfer the land to its rightful owners.
The land meant for cremation ground grazing of animals and other common purposes was left out of the total area of 273 acres. Nearly 70 acres were left as directed by the Director Land Records said Niranjan Kumar
Certain villagers claim that the Jand was distributed among the rightful owners after the decision by the Director Land Records and some of them started cultivation of the land.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 1, 1994
