Irked by changes in land auction law, Dalit body will gherao Punjab CM’s residence on May 12
One third of panchayati land was reserved for Dalits for farming for several decades, before new rules were introduced in on March 10 this year.
Written by Raakhi Jagga
A number of Scheduled Caste (SC) unions of the state have decided to gherao Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s Sangrur residence on May 12 to protest against changes made to the policy for 2022-23 auction of panchayati land for farming purposes, in which several relaxations given to SC/STs have been withdrawn. They demanded that the new notification be withdrawn immediately.
One third of panchayati land was reserved for Dalits for farming for several decades, before new rules were introduced in on March 10 this year.
An order with the changed policy was, interestingly, notified on March 10 this year, the same day the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was voted to power in the state with a massive mandate. The AAP government officially took charge of the state only on March 16.
“A notification had been issued in 2018 by the then Congress government, in which panchayati land reserved for Dalits could be given on lease for a maximum of 3 years, with no annual price hike. In addition to this, if five or more Dalits of a village will got together and came forward with a proposal of group farming on reserved land, then they were to be given preference . However, after the March 10 notification by the administration, all the above stated privileges have been withdrawn,” said Mukesh Malaud, president of Zamin Prapati Sangrash Committee (ZPSC), an organisation which has been at the forefront of agitations at several villages — like Jaloor , Balad Kalan (both in Sangrur), Kakrala , and Fatehgarh Chhana (both in Patiala), among others — that has led to land auctions being temporarily postponed.
“Though the 2018 notification was not implemented in letter and spirit everywhere, Dalits at several places — like Mullowal and Dhandiwal in Sangrur and Tolewal in Malerkotla — had managed to get land on lease for 3 years. Their leases hace expired now,” Malaud said.
The new notification for 2022-23 says that if land was auctioned in the range of Rs 20,001-30,000 per acre in the previous year, then the bids this time will commence after an increase of 15% in base price. Likewise, the base price will increase by 20% if land was auctioned at Rs 20,000, and the base price wil be hiked by 7.5% if land was auctioned last year between Rs 30,000-35,000 per acre. The base price will be hiked by 5% if land was auctioned for Rs 35,000 or above, last year.
Malaud said,”Most of the panchayati lands reserved for Dalits were auctioned between Rs 20,000-30,000. So this category will witness the maximum amount of hike. In the last three years, the hike in the base prices had been bare minimum.”
He also pointed out that the new set of auction rules also have done away with the group farming option. Apart from this, the new rules also mandate that general category and reserved category land auction would take place at the same venue, which was not the norm earlier to avoid clashes and charges of dummy auction, Malaud said.
“In Malerkotla’s Rampur Chhana, for example, auction of reserved land was done in name of relative of panchayat member which is against the law as no relative of panchayat member can take part in the auction. We have submitted complaint regarding this to State Panchayat Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal but nothing has happened till now. We want the auction to be cancelled,” Malaud added. Other ZPSC members said that earlier the AAP leaders used to sit with them during dharnas when dummy auctions were conducted under the Congress regime.Now, those very leaders “were encouraging dummy actions.”
Malaud added that that they had been told that the notification was dated March 10, with the new government taking charge only on March 16. Hence, the new set of auction rules were being reviewed.
The Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday condemned the Punjab government’s proposal to amend the panchyati land auction rules in the state, which they said will prove disadvantageous for the Dalit community.
Reacting to the proposed move, the state BJP general secretary, Dr Subhash Sharma said the auction rules had been amended only after a long struggle by the Dalits, in 2018.
He alleged that the AAP government in Punjab was playing into the hands of vested interests and influential people and was trying to go back to the pre-2018 auction rules.
Demanding that the government not amend rules, the BJP leader said that it stood by the Dalit community and his party would support protests against the amendments in all possible ways. The BJP, he said, will not be averse to taking legal recourse if the government decided to go ahead with its anti-Dalit amendments.
Contacted Malwinder Singh Kang, spokesperson for AAP’s Punjab unit said,”This issue has been brought to our knowledge. This is an old notification and wasn’t issued by our government. We stand by the Dalits and we will not harm their interests. The government is reviewing this notification.”
Courtesy : TIE
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