CM leads drive to take possession of illegally occupied land in Mohali

Chandigarh: Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday supervised a government drive to take possession of 2,828 acres of illegally encroached prime land worth ₹350 crore in Majri block of Mohali from 15 influential encroachers, including sons of newly elected MP from Sangrur Simranjit Singh Mann and former minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar.

The CM said the prime land is situated in the foothills and has been illegally occupied by several influential officers and politicians since long.

Rural development and panchayati raj minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal, who accompanied Mann, said the illegal occupants included Imaanjit Singh Mann, the son of Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur Simranjit Singh Mann, who had encroached 125 acres of land, and former minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar’s son Harmandeep Singh Dhaliwal, who has encroached five acres of land. The Daughter and son-in-law of the Sangrur MP have also occupied 28 acres of prime land illegally, he said.

The minister said 1,100 acres of land have been encroached upon by Fauja Singh, who runs an infrastructure company in Mohali.

He said that other encroachers include Imaan Singh (125 acre), Akur Dhawan (103 acre), Jatinder Singh Dua and Pukhraj Singh Dua (40 acre), Prabhdeep Singh Sandhu, Gobind Singh Sandhu and Nanki Kaur (28 acre), Ripudaman Singh (25 acre), Navdeep Kaur (15 acre), Deepak Bansal (12 acre), KF Farms (11 acre), Tejvir Singh Dhillon (10 acre), Inderjit Singh Dhillon (8 acre), Deepinder Pal Chahal (8 acre), Sandeep Bansal (6 acre), Harmandeep Singh Dhaliwal (5 acre), Manjit Singh Dhanoa (5 acre) and Rita Sharma (4 acre).

However, the political families who were named by the minister rubbished claims of the minister and threatened to take legal recourse against the government.

Sangrur MP’s Son Imam Singh Mann said he had bought this land in early 90s from local owners and it was never a panchayat land. “There is no question of encroachment. We have all the documents including the land mutations with us. We will definitely challenge the government move to take possession of this land,” said Iman Singh Mann.

Former minister Kangar said the government was doing this to divert people’s attention from real issues. “My son bought the 5 acres of land around one-and-half-year back. We bought this from private persons and it was a mushtarka khewat. We have records and we will show it in the court. We haven’t even taken the possession of the land till date. Where is the question of encroachment?” asked Kangar.