Punish officers for misguiding govt on land act: MP

Holding forest department officials responsible for misguiding the state government on the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900, Hoshiarpur MP Vijay Sampla on Saturday submitted a memorandum outlining facts to chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Holding forest department officials responsible for misguiding the state government on the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900, Hoshiarpur MP Vijay Sampla on Saturday submitted a memorandum outlining facts to chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

HT Image

Sampla, who was accompanied by assistant media adviser Vineet Joshi, pointed out that third and fourth generation land owners with about 1,50,000 hectare land were facing hardships as the forest officials wrongly re-notified the same lands under PLPA, 1900, without following the procedure mentioned in the act.

They pointed out that forest officials were misguiding the government and courts by taking two different stands on the issue.

Sampla also presented copies of affidavits filed by forest department. In one of the affidavits it was mentioned that lands notified under PLPA 1900 belonged to the forest department, while another affidavit mentioned otherwise.

The memorandum also pointed that they had been raising the issue since 2005, but the forest department's conduct indicated ignorance and callousness towards farmers of Kandi area. They also demanded strict action against the erring officials.