Ludhiana: Believe it or not, the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) has had to take possession of its own land by force at least three times from the same encroacher.The case dates back to 1984, when LIT had acquired 475 acres of land under the Vikas scheme in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (SBS Nagar), out of which 5.5 acres belonged to one Gajjan Singh. The officials had deposited Rs2.22 lakh with the land acquisition director initially in 1997, and another Rs11.11 lakh was deposited in Gajjan’s name later. However, LIT officials say Gajjan never really vacated his land, nor did he show any interest in collecting his compensation amount.LIT officials first attempted to get possession in 2002 when Gajjan and his son Kehar Singh allegedly opened fire. In that attempt, junior engineer Nirmal Singh Bhullar was also killed, while two others had received injuries. Kehar had also gone to jail for Nirmal’s murder, but he is now free. LIT again attempted possession of the land in 2012, and that year, they came to an agreement that he would get a plot of 500 sq yards in this land. At that time, Gajjan was warned by LIT officials not to attempt the encroachment again. However, even the allottees were asked to take care of their allotted plots.But this verbal agreement itself made Gajjan file a case against LIT in court, as government procedures took a long time to take effect. The case turned out in favour of LIT, and so it was decided to give possession of the land to around 114 plot-holders.However, the ‘encroachment’ on 5.5 acres of land by Gajjan’s family continued. Then, last year in February, officials again went there and got possession of the land by force. But LIT, ironically, lost the land again to Gajjan again out of sheer negligence and lack of monitoring. Now, LIT is planning to acquire the land again sometime this week, for which they have intimated the police to send their personnel when required.It must be mentioned here that for the past more than a year, LIT officials did not pay attention towards the land, so it had again come under encroachment. The department actually woke up from its slumber when allottees approached officials and complained that Gajjan was not letting them do any construction there, and they were being threatened to leave the land as it is.LIT superintending engineer Rakesh Garg said they had received complaints, and to conduct the drive now, they would require force. He said as per Supreme Court and high court guidelines in previous cases, they have declared Gajjan an encroacher. “We will conduct this drive within the next few days, and people will be given possession of their plots again,” added Garg.When TOI approached Gajjan Singh’s family for their side of the story, Gajjan’s son Malkit Singh said they did not receive any compensation amount in lieu of the land. He said they were ready to give possession of their land to LIT, but for that, the LIT would have to charge a similar rate for the plot which they are charging from others. He said LIT was charging Rs32,200 per square yard from them, while from other allottees, they had taken only Rs3,200 per square yard. He added that the matter was in Supreme Court, and the next date of hearing is October 12.

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