Haryana may allow squatters to stay put on panchayat land

CHANDIGARH: The state government is exploring a policy for continuance of the occupation of village panchayat land to those who are in illegal possession. This, according to the state, would be done to avoid unnecessary litigation. The Manohar Lal Khattar-led coalition government may finalise such a policy in the next six weeks’ time.
A formal statement regarding the government’s intention was made on Wednesday by Haryana advocate general (AG) Baldev Raj Mahajan before the Punjab and Haryana high court in response to a matter related to encroachment on panchayat lands in Haryana.
“A policy is being framed for exploring the possibility of permitting continuance of the occupation of the gram panchayat land by persons who are in unauthorised/illegal possession. This is being thought over in the light of the fact that there are a large number of encroachments which have been affected where constructions have been made and old structures are existing… This has led to litigation either for their eviction or for, where, orders of eviction have been passed, and their execution is being pressed. The state therefore needs six weeks’ time to finalise the said policy,” the AG informed the court.
The matter, which has now been adjourned to March 16, had reached before the HC in the wake of a petition filed by Ram Lal and others, residents of Karnal in Haryana. The petitioners were in possession of panchayat land and had approached the HC against the orders regarding its dispossession. During the hearing of the case, the AG also gave an undertaking that till the finalisation of any policy, the state government would not dispossess the petitioners from panchayat land.
As per the report filed by the state government last year before the HC in relation to case of encroachment on panchayat land, it was stated that around 11,082 eviction proceedings were pending in Haryana till December 31, 2020, against those who have encroached upon the panchayat land in various villages in the state. Around 3,182 petitions or applications were also pending before various courts regarding the execution of the order regarding eviction of encroachers from the panchayat land till January 1, 2019. In a period of two years from January 1 to December 2020, a total of 1,305 proceedings were also filed before the courts, in which 867 have been decided till December 31, 2020 and 3,622 were pending.