The Punjab Government has claimed to have released 9,389 acre of Shamlat land out of fist of encroachers. The Department of Rural Development and Panchayat has freed illegal encroachments. The government has appealed that the citizens of Punjab who have illegally encroached on Panchayat land should come forward on their own to leave the illegal encroachment so that Punjab can be taken on the path of progress.
Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that a campaign was started by the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat during the year 2022 to get rid of illegal encroachment from the Shamlat land of the villages. A separate Shamlat cell has also been set up to run this campaign smoothly. During this campaign, illegal encroachment has been released from more than 9,389 acres of land so far.
The cabinet minister told that as an effort of Shamlat Cell, all the records related to Shamlat lands are being thoroughly checked and till now the work of checking 153 blocks has been completed. He told that the department has so far identified 139818 acres of land, which will be used for the welfare of the people in the coming times.
He told that by December, 2022, a total of 6,206 acres of land under Patiala Division has been freed from illegal occupation and handed over to panchayats. 1,100 acres in Patiala, 808 acres in Ludhiana, 464 acres in Fatehgarh Sahib, 194 acres in Sangrur, 3,469 acres in SAS Nagar, 154 acres in Rupnagar, 8 acres in Barnala and 9 acres in Malerkotla have been freed from encroachments.
Apart from this, a total of 507 acres of land under Ferozepur Division has been freed from illegal encroachments. Dhaliwal informed that illegal encroachments have been removed from 128 acres 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 encroachments have been removed from a total of 2,676 acres of land under Jalandhar division. He told 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, S. B. 228 acres of S Nagar and 300 acres of Pathankot land have been freed.
