Thaindian News

Chandigarh, Sep 4 (IANS) Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Tuesday wrote to his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi and BJP president Nitin Gadkari over the grievance of Punjabi farmers of Bhuj and Kutch who fear that they may be divested of their land under a tenancy act in that state.

A 17-member delegation of Punjabi farmers from Bhuj and Kutch areas had met Badal here Monday to seek his help in the matter. They feared that they will be driven away from their own land that they had been ploughing for over 40 years.

In separate letters to Modi and Gadkari, Badal said that the orders of collector of Kutch area to freeze more than 1,000 ‘Khedut Khatas’ (agricultural accounts) of Punjabi farmers “was a complete injustice with these people who had developed this barren land into fertile one with their hard labour”.

Badal said he was peeved to learn that though a division bench of the Gujarat High Court, headed by the acting chief justice, had already given a ruling in favour of these farmers the Gujarat government had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the decision.

The Punjab chief minister said it was totally unfair as Gujarat was a homeland for these Punjabi farmers who had been pursuing agriculture in the state for the past over three decades.

The farmers had apprised Badal that they were being uprooted from their own lands by the Gujarat government under the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands (Vidarbha region) Act.