10 years after takeover, land of six villages still not under Mohali MC’s ambit
Despite the Mohali MC taking over the villages before 2014, the panchayat department still holds the ownership of shamlat land, awaiting transfer by the revenue department
A decade after six villages were brought under the purview of Mohali municipal corporation (MC), a bureaucratic hurdle is preventing the civic body from utilising valuable land within its jurisdiction.
Despite taking over these villages before 2014, the revenue department has yet to transfer ownership of the shamlat land (village common land) to the MC. This means the civic body cannot use the land for any new development projects, as ownership remains on paper with the panchayat department.
Mohali MC Commissioner T Benith has now renewed the call for the revenue department to expedite the transfer and demarcation of the land.
The commissioner has also directed the Mohali Tehsildar to demarcate the shamlat land in each of the six villages: Sohana (approximately 3 hectares), Kumbra (14 hectares), Shahi Majra (18 kanal), Madanpura (approximately 6.72 hectares), Mataur (322 kanal), and Mohali village (40 kanal).
A senior MC officer revealed that this is not the first time the MC has requested this transfer. A previous request was made to the Mohali deputy commissioner (DC) on July 29, 2021, but yielded no results.
“It is strange that even when these six villages were handed over to us long back, MC still does not have any ownership or authority on the panchayat land in these villages,” the officer lamented. “The administration or the revenue department should have done this long back despite repeated reminders, after which we could have utilised the land for some key projects like dairy farming or for some other prudent use.”
As per officials, once the revenue department completes the demarcation, the civic body plans to remove any encroachments, including slums, on the land.
“We are coordinating with the revenue department and the process of updating revenue records is in process,” commissioner T Benith stated.