CHANDIGARH: In a display of brute force the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) has grabbed a phenomenal 6,100 acres of land on the eastern bank of the Beas River, extending across 16 villages in the Kapurthala district.

The occupation of the vast tract of land by the PAP has been termed “illegal” by the Deputy Commissioner of Kapurthala, Satish Chandra, in his report submitted to the Punjab Government recently, it is learned. However, action on the report is still awaited. While the PAP has grabbed about 450 acres of rich cultivable land from the local villagers, it has dispossessed the Irrigation Department of the state of about 5,000 acres. The rest of the encroached land also belongs to the state government.

The aggrieved villagers had approached Chief Minister Beant Singh to intervene in the matter. Beant Singh had issued instructions to the PAP chief to let the villagers continue with their agricultural operations on the land. However, there was no positive outcome in the matter.

Some villagers had also moved the High Court and obtained an injunction to resume the cultivation of their land. However, the PAP refused to vacate the land.

The IGP of the PAP, M.S. Bhullar, said that he had nothing to say as “our case for the transfer of the government land is pending with the state government. In case of some of the land, litigation is going on in the High Court,” he added.

While the PAP officials claim, that the land is being used for training its personnel, the force is actually growing crops and selling sarkanda grass from the area to paper mills in Sangrur and Mukerian.

The PAP had in 1992 placed a request with the state government that it should be handed over this land for training police personnel. However, the state government had turned down this request.

A year later, the PAP moved on its own and took over this land, despite protests from the local villagers and the Irrigation Department, which needs the land as it forms part of the pond area of the Harike Barrage.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 6, 1995