Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday assured a three member delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) that no Sikh farmer would be displaced in the State, a statement issued by the party said here.
After a meeting with the UP chief minister at his residence in Lucknow, former SAD MP Prem Singh Chandumajra said a SAD delegation met the chief minister at the instance of party President Sukhbir Singh Badal.
He said the chief minister announced on the spot that the Government would earmark an alternative site for the Armed Forces centre which was earlier proposed to be built on land in which Sikh farmers have settled in Champatpur Chakla in Bijnore.
He said the chief minister also formed four separate teams to conduct surveys at all four places where Sikhs fear displacement to find out ways and means to give them rights to the land they are tilling.
Chandumajra said the chief minister also appointed Uttar Pradesh State minister for Irrigation Baldev Singh Aulakh as the Coordinator for looking into all the four issues as well as other problems faced by the Sikh community in Uttar Pradesh.
The SAD committee, including Sikander Singh Maluka and Daljit Singh Cheema welcomed the assurance given by the Chief Minister and said Saturday's meeting would pave the way for award of land rights to all Sikhs who had been tilling land parcels since the 1950s.
“We welcome the chief minister’s statement that not a single Sikh would be uprooted from his land”, the members of the committee added.