http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=6978
Violence at Lakhnour, Sohana: It’s a day of calm after the storm
Express News Service
S.A.S. Nagar, January 14: AFTER a day marked by flaring tempers and widespread discontent, the relative quietness in the two villages of Lakhnour and Sohana unveiled an altogether different story today. The same farmers who had been provoked to violence after the members of Radha Soami Satsang Beas ploughed some of the land in these villages on Sunday, seemed to be much subdued in their reaction to the incident.
‘‘Legally, the farmers had no right to raise a crop on the land when it had been already acquired by Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA),’’ said Bhagat Singh, sarpanch of Sohana. ‘‘However, we were not sure whether Radha Soami Satsang had been given possession of the land or not,’’ he added.
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‘‘For the past few months, the farmers were in regular touch with us over the issue,’’ said Gurbax Singh, the secretary of the managing committee of Radha Soami Satsang Beas. ‘‘We had even asked them to retrieve their crop before Saturday,’’ he added. ‘‘Whatever we have done is totally legal. It is our land, we have been officially given its possession,’’ he further said.
When contacted, Land Acquisition Collector Narender Sangha said,‘‘The land in question is PUDA’s and since it has been allotted to the Radha Soamis, they are within their rights to use it’’. ‘‘The farmers shouldn’t have raised the crop since they had received the compensation after the acquisition,’’ Sangha added.
The farmers, on the other hand, have been claiming that they had raised the crop after taking PUDA authorities into confidence. PUDA Chief Administrator K.B.S Sidhu, when contacted, denied this. ‘‘PUDA had never allowed them to raise the crop,’’ said Sidhu.
PUDA officials also said that once a land is acquired and the compensation for the same has been paid, the previous owner of the land has nothing to do with it.
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