The Department of Rural Development and Panchayats launched a campaign in 2022 to get rid of illegal possessions and demarcation of Panchayat Lands in the villages and illegal possession have been razed from more than 9389 acres of Panchayat Land during this campaign, Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said on Saturday.
In a statement, he said that all the old records related to Shamlat Lands were being examined thoroughly due to the strenuous efforts of the Shamlat Cell and examining the records of Shamlat lands of 153 blocks has been accomplished so far. He said that the department has identified such type of 1,39,818 acres of land, which will be used for the welfare of the people in future.
Dhaliwal said that by December 2022, a total of 6206 acres of land under Patiala division has been freed from illegal possessions and handed over to concerned Panchayats for adequate usage. He said that illegal possessions from 1100 acres land of Patiala, 808 acres of Ludhiana, 464 acres of Fatehgarh Sahib, 194 acres of Sangrur, 3469 acres of SAS Nagar, 154 acres of Rupnagar, 8 acres of Barnala and 9 acres of land of Malerkotla have been razed with the help of law enforcement agencies. He said that a total of 507 acres of land under Ferozepur division has been freed from illegal occupation.
He further informed that illegal possession razed from 128 acres land of district Ferozepur, 187 acres of Fazilka, 27 acres of Sri Muktsar Sahib, 13 acres of Mansa, 49 acres of Bathinda, 26 acres of Moga and 77 acres of Faridkot. Similarly, illegal possession has been removed from a total of 2676 acres of land falls under Jalandhar division. He said that 609 acres of Gurdaspur, 602 acres of Kapurthala, 264 acres of Amritsar, 239 acres of Jalandhar, 308 acres of Hoshiarpur, 126 acres of Tarn Taran, 228 acres of SBS Nagar and 300 acres land of Pathankot have been freed from illegal occupants.