Probe into land dispute ordered

CHANDIGARH, April 23: There is great resentment among the residents of Gurdaspur town and surrounding village of Bathwala, Halla and Chaiya ...

CHANDIGARH, April 23: There is great resentment among the residents of Gurdaspur town and surrounding village of Bathwala, Halla and Chaiya over an attempt of a group of influential persons to take forcible possession of the land belonging to a temple situated on the Trimmu road in Chaiya village, 2 km from here. This prime land now worth crores, was donated by the mahants to the Muslims of Chaiya village for their graveyard, before Independence. In the revenue records, Mahants Tej Nath, Prem Nath and Ayudhiya Nath are the owners of this land.

When the Muslims migrated to Pakistan during Partition, the land came under the possession of the donors. But these mahants again donated this land to Baba Bhairon Nath who built a Shiv temple on a part of the land. The possession of the temple and its land, still lies with the temple authorities.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government issued a notification by which the grave yards of the Muslims were transferred to the Panjab Wakf Board. But the mahant-cum-manager of the Shiv temple filed a suit against this notification in a local court, which is still to be decided. When contacted, the WAKF Board authorities here said the land was given by the Wakf Board to an influencial politician of Batala, six years ago.

The issue of temple land took a new turn when on April 7, the proprietor of Dhawan Property K.K. Dhawan and Vinod Gupta, a Gurdaspur-based correspondent of UNI and the Hindu Samachar Group, Jalandhar in connivance with the WAKF Board authorities and the lease-holder started constructing a boundary wall around the piece of land. One eyewitness, Baldev Singh, sarpanch of Chaiya said that these persons hired about 200 masons and labourers to construct the wall which came up in no time. They also got deployed about a dozen policemen led by ASI Gurbachan posted at Sadar Police Station, Gurdaspur.

Following the construction, the residents of the area visited the local Akali MLA Kartar Singh Pahra and requested him to help them against this alleged injustice.

The MLA accompanied by the residents, visited the land under dispute and ordered those present to demolish the wall. The wall was razed in his presence and lakhs of bricks could be seen scattered around.

Gurdaspur SSP Gaurav Yadav said here today that the police had received counter-complaints from the temple authorities and Wakf Board and the other parties involved in the dispute. He said he had ordered DSP Jaswant Singh Cheema to probe the matter. Yadav said the situation was under control and he would allow only the rightful owner to take possession of the land.

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When asked to comment, Vinod Gupta said he had nothing to do with this case. Though he was present there, he had gone there only to meet K.K. Dhawan.