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Villagers to resist land acquisition

Jalandhar: The row over acquisition of farmland for non-agriculture purpose reached Punjab where residents of 25 villages on Wednesday formed a committee to resist the State Government’s reported move to acquire land on both sides of the Sutlej river near Phillaur.

A 53-member committee of “Ujara Virodhi Sangathan” comprising nearly 25 villages of Jalandhar and Ludhiana districts threatened an agitation against any attempt to acquire farmland and would hold a dharna at Phillaur against the survey of land being conducted by the district administration.

Villagers alleged that the State Government was secretly initiating a process to acquire their agricultural land for constructing a water sports recreation centre.

They warned that if any attempt was made to forcibly acquire their land, they would have no option but to go on warpath and hence decided to organize a protest demonstration in front of Phillaur sub divisional magistrate’s office on July 23 against the alleged move.

Phillaur SDM Pritam Singh, when contacted, however expressed ignorance about any move being initiated by the Government to acquire land.

“It is only the apprehension of villagers. They should not believe in rumours as Government cannot acquire land secretly as alleged by them”, the SDM said. PTI

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