A day after Dhanas protest: Colony sprang up on agricultural land, thanks to landowner-middleman nexus

According to area patwari Ram Chandran, the land on which this colony sprang up over the years is in the name of around 20 families, who own different chunks of land. Besides, two acres is the shamlat land (common land of the village), which was under the control of a few villagers and ultimately absorbed in building houses here.

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The colony had an organic growth since 2002 and no one in the administration saw anything illegal here until 2010 when residents here were first served the evacuation notices. Following this, the matter went to court. As per a rough estimate, more than 1,200 families reside here at present. Many of them recently shifted here when the nearby Colony No 5 was demolished.

To start with, a few jhuggis were allowed on a monthly rent here, it is learnt.

Seeing easy revenue, landowners allowed more jhuggis over the years and have been collecting monthly rent from them. One of the landowners, Rattan Singh, former panch of the village, sees nothing wrong in it. “Our land was vacant and it was rented out to people here,” he said.

There are a few landowners here who gave their chunk of land on an annual patta to middlemen, who, it is learnt, were colony residents only.

The patta system is a common practice in villages. Under this, the land is given for cultivation in return for fixed annual income. However, middlemen here cut plots of 1-2 two marlas each and allotted them on a promise that ownership would be transferred later but that did not happen.

There are houses here which have proper plot number but none of them has any sale agreement copy.

Seeking action, Subhash, a local resident, complained to village sarpanch Kuljeet Singh Sandhu that he purchased one-marla plot for Rs 42,000 with an assurance that land will be transferred in his name but it was not done.

Sandhu told Newsline that he got many such complaints in the past and forwarded these to the police. “However I don’t know about their status now,” he said.

A landowner, Jaswinder Singh, whose family owns 2 kanals of land in the disputed colony, said that their land was given on an annual lease. “We don’t know how it was further rented to people living here. Ownership of the land is still with us,” he said.

He mentioned the names of Harinder Singh and Afzal Khan, who was given land on annual lease. These two people were among those booked on Monday for spreading chaos and rioting in the DC office.

However, poor residents are the worst affected. “Families here have small children and spent their hard-earned money on constructing houses. We can’t be rendered homeless all of a sudden,” said Birju, a resident.

Another resident, Babu, said the colony was constructed on private land. “If the administration had any problems, they should not have allowed construction of houses here,” he said.

Most of the people who live here are daily wagers, rickshaw-pullers, auto drivers and those who do other small jobs. The colony has no proper water and sewer connection. Children are sent to the nearby Dhanas government school.