Evicted From Haryana Village, Sikh Farmers Left In Lurch

[Jonny101]

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130819/main5.htm

Evicted from Haryana village, Sikh farmers left in lurch
Bhanu P Lohumi/TNS

Karah Sahib (Pehowa), Aug 18
Evicted from their lands, hounded by the administration, facing hostility from the village panchayat and completely dependent on the local gurdwara for food, 150 Sikh families living near Pehowa in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district are struggling to survive. They were evicted from the lands they cultivated for six decades after a protracted legal battle.

The families of Kupia Plat in Karah Sahib village were allotted land on lease for 20 years in 1952 under the ‘Grow More Food’ programme by the then Punjab Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon. With hard work and labour, they converted the thick forests and marshy lands into fertile cultivable lands.

The 20-year land lease expired in 1972 and the village panchayat claimed ownership on the land, forcing the affected Sikhs to approach the court. After protracted litigation, the court gave its verdict in favour of the village panchayat and the Sikh families were evicted from the land by the administration.

The Sikhs are up in arms as the panchayat further leased some acres of retrieved land through open bidding in which they did not participate. The families said the land is lying barren as the new allottees are not cultivating the land fearing retaliation, while the evicted Sikhs have stopped cultivation as the administration is harvesting their crop and giving it to the panchayat.

The Haryana Government issued two notifications in 2008 and 2010 for restoration of land, but with a rider: The “land will be given with the consent of the Panchayat”, but the exercise become redundant as the panchayat was allegedly hostile towards these families.

The Sikh representatives want that their land and pension be restored, they be covered under the BPL category and be given benefits of the Food Security Ordinance. Citing examples of how the police and administration were treating them as soldiers of a vanquished army, the Sikhs said one of them, Gurmeet Singh, was jailed for not paying the fine.

Bhola Singh said that he along with Nirmal Singh and Mohan Singh were jailed for four to six months on the charge of theft of 9-kg Toria sown by them on the disputed land. Some others have been in jail for four to six months, even for offences that are bailable.

Taking a dig at Haryana Chief Minister BS Hooda, who had expressed concern over the eviction of Sikhs from Gujarat, National Commission for Minorities ex-chairman and National Human Rights Commission member Tarlochan Singh, who arrived here to espouse the cause of the affected people, said: “Hooda is worried about the Sikhs in Gujarat (who after 50 years of farming have been ousted), but not bothered about Sikh farmers being rendered landless and homeless in his own state. How can a sensitive Chief Minister sleep when his people are in distress?”

“The government boasts of major strides in medical facilities, electricity and education but is unmoved about the death of half a dozen ailing people due to lack of timely medical aid. Children from these affected families have dropped out of school, the village gets electricity for barely two hours a day, there is no employment, and several families are starving and are finding it difficult to get their daughters married...”

Addressing a rally by the uprooted Sikhs, Tarlochan Singh assured that matters related to human rights violations by the police would be taken up with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Minorities Commission and the Prime Minister’s intervention would be sought.

Senior Akali leader Prem Singh Chandumajra said the SGPC would arrange for legal services so that the villagers could plead their case and a free kitchen would be run till they were settled and rehabilitated. An SGPC deputation would also meet the Governor.

Maintaining that they have no land, no employment and nowhere to go, the agitating Sikhs said they would intensify their agitation and start an indefinite strike from September 9 if the matter was not resolved to their satisfaction.

Nowhere to go

150 Sikh families of Kupia Plat in Karah Sahib Village near Pehowa in Kurukshetra district of Haryana were evicted from the lands they had cultivated for six decades after a protracted legal battle

The families were allotted land on lease for 20 years in 1952 by the then Punjab CM Pratap Singh Kairon

The lease expired in 1972 and the village panchayat claimed ownership on the land, forcing the affected Sikhs to approach the court

After protracted litigation, the court gave its verdict in favour of the village panchayat and the Sikh families were evicted from the land by the administration

[lsingh]

News about the discrimination of Sikhs in India seem to be becoming daily news (Genocide revelations, Gujarat Sikh evictions, Delhi attacks). Our Sikh organisations need to take a firm stand on this immediately.

[13Mirch]

News about the discrimination of Sikhs in India seem to be becoming daily news (Genocide revelations, Gujarat Sikh evictions, Delhi attacks). Our Sikh organisations need to take a firm stand on this immediately.

I will tell u what has happened to all the Sikh organisations. They died.

Fools we have to get up and do something ourselves. Not rely on a bloody organisation. PERIOD!

[lsingh]

Minorities in Gujarat victimised, Sikh farmers tell SC

Saurabh Malik/TNS

Chandigarh, August 20

Accusing Chief Minister Narendra Modi of “terrorising, browbeating, intimidating and victimising the minorities in Gujarat,” Punjabi farmers settled in the state have claimed before the Supreme Court that the prevailing law only prohibits non-agriculturists from buying land in Gujarat.

In a statement filed before the Supreme Court, they have claimed that the Agricultural Land (Vidharba Region and Kutch Area) Act, 1958, “nowhere says that agriculturists from other states cannot buy land in Gujarat”.

The 22-page statement also refers to an editorial carried in The Tribune on August 5 titled “Uprooted in Gujarat, Modi fixes farmers from Punjab” in an attempt to substantiate their contention.

The statement by Preethi Singh, Mukand Singh and other farmers was filed on Monday afternoon through barrister-at-law Himmat Singh Shergill in response to an appeal before the Supreme Court by the District Collector, Kutch, and others.

This is, perhaps, the first time that the farmers have made clear their stand before the Supreme Court by referring to the legal issues. Already, the decision to evict farmers of others states, including Sikh farmers cultivating land in Kutch for decades, has stirred up politics. In Punjab, the Congress is using the issue as a plank to embarrass the ruling SAD-BJP alliance. The party has dubbed Modi as “anti-minority” leader. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, on the other hand, has been insisting that the Congress government preceding the Modi regime was responsible for the eviction of Punjabi families.

Referring to the provisions of the Act, Shergill has asserted that any Indian agriculturist can buy land and carry out farming in Gujarat. The law on the issue was crystal clear and there was no specific exclusion of farmers from Punjab or other parts of India from buying land in Gujarat.

“Section 89 of the Act has only barred non-agriculturists from buying land…. The precondition for buying land is that the person has to be an agriculturist. If the intention of the legislature was that agriculturists from other states cannot buy land in Gujarat, this should have specifically been a part of the Act”.

He has claimed that the very subsistence of the Sikh farmers is at stake as they have been refused farm loans by financial institutions in the wake of the controversy. "The farmers are being forced to live a life of uncertainty, poverty and stress. Several deaths have taken place ever since their accounts were illegally frozen in 2010 by the Gujarat Government,” Shergill contended.

Going into the background of the issue, he said that farmers from Punjab started buying land in Kutch after the 1965 Indo-Pak war on the invitation of then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri as he wanted the area to be “well-inhabited”.

Seeking the dismissal of the appeal with costs, Shergill said "gross injustice has been done to the respondents as they are, prima facie, not hit by Section 89 Act, which specifically barred only non-agriculturists from buying Land in Gujarat”.