Gurgaon: Silokhra villagers set August 6 deadline for Haryana govt on land acquisition issue

360 villages held a mahapanchayat in Silokhra village and warned the state govt against constructing a BJP office on village land acquired by Huda

Residents of 360 villages in Gurgaon district held a mahapanchayat in Silokhra village on Sunday and warned the Haryana government against constructing a group housing project and an office of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 12 acres of the village acquired by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda). They asked the government to announce cancellation of the proposal before August 6.

Four mahapanchayats have been held (Sanjeev Verma/HT FIle)

The representatives of panchayats of the villages passed a resolution that included demands such as setting up a community centre for the village, recharging pond with water and cancelling group housing and party office plan. The panchayat was concluded with a warning to the government.

This was the fourth panchayat since May 14 — including those on May 24 and June 4 — over the Silokhra land issue.

Mahender Singh Thakran, the pradhan of 360 villages, said, “We warn the government against restarting construction on the land. We do not want violence but if the government starts constructing the road, cutting trees and other such activities without agreeing to our demands, it will serve to anger us. We want Huda to use the 12 acres for the welfare of the village only.”

Nearly 2,500 people attended the panchayat held on the land in question in Sector 30, which is in the vicinity of South City-I.

The panchayat members said that the 12 acres in question belonged to the village panchayat until it was acquired by Huda in 2011, which sent had the first acquisition notice in 1989. They said that they fought a long legal battle to save the land from acquisition but alleged that the MCG, which replaced the panchayat in 2008-09, failed to contest for the land in the court.

“After Huda acquired the land, we continued to press for a community centre and also continue to protest against filling of a natural pond in the village. But, we decided that the situation has worsened three months ago, when we learnt that the land is being used for group housing for MLAs and MPs, besides setting up of a party office. This is unacceptable,” Mukesh Sharma of Silokhra said.

“Later, BB Gogia, subdivisional magistrate (North), came to meet panchayat members and we handed over a memorandum. We are hoping that the Haryana chief minister will consider our demand,” said Om Prakash, another resident of Silokhra.

Gogia, when asked, said, “I asked them to send a representative to the additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of Gurgaon, Vinay Pratap, to discuss this issue.”