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This is an archive article published on March 20, 2015
A village divided over land allotted to Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust
In 2012, the six villagers were forced to withdraw their petition as it created a stir in the village.
The land allotted to the trust at Ulhawas village. (Source: Express Photo by Rakesh Kumar)“For 18 long years, I was the sarpanch. The panchayat never dared to touch the shamlat land then. Why is the land being taken now in the name of development?” asks 85-year-old Sirya Sarpanch of Ulhawas village, one of the six petitioners who moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the controversial release of five acres of panchayat land to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) in 2009.
However, in 2012, the six villagers were forced to withdraw their petition as it created a stir in the village. “The feeling of not parting with the panchayat land still remains. The situation went out of control in the village,” 55-year-old Dharamvir Sarpanch, another petitioner, said.
“To save the land, I will contest the upcoming panchayat elections in May after 25 years. I want to contest only for this land,” he said.
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The state government on Wednesday said “wherever panchayats want their land back, we will consider returning these to the villages”. However, on the condition that the present panchayat gave an affidavit saying they want the shamlat — village common land — back.
But in Ulhawas village, those not in favour of a “trust being built on village land” do not want enmity with those wanting to lease the land. The present sarpanch and people of the panchayat do not want to take back the land.
“The land was allotted in December 2009 on a 33-year lease at Rs 3 lakh per acre with 5 per cent annual increase. For the last six years, the panchayat has been getting Rs 15 lakh every year and will keep getting it until the lease gets over,” Azad Singh, the present sarpanch, said.
The RGCT was supposed to build ‘Unique Eye Hospital’ on the land by 2014. However, in February last year, the then Congress government extended the deadline till January 2017.
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But, a visit to the site only offers five acres of barren land with a shed made for the labourers to guard the plot.
On Wednesday, the Haryana government revived the issue of land allotted in 2009 to the RGCT in Gurgaon. The Manohar Lal Khattar government told the state Assembly that the circumstances under which around five acres in Ulhawas village was allotted to the trust would be fully investigated.
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