Unlawful grabbing of forest lands by Baba Ramdev
A common man or a tribal
cannot acquire even a small plot
for his dwelling either in the forest-
lands or village common land. The
authorities restrict in the name of
various acts and rules that disallow
acquiring even through a purchase
of land from its owner. But when it
comes to the mighty and powerful,
with their clout with the powers that
be, they are easily allowed to
acquire even forested hilly
common lands of the villages. To
facilitate such unlawful acquisition
of village common and forested
lands the rules will be bent in favour
of the powerful even by defeating
the orders of the very Supreme
Court itself.
The Patanjali group of
companies found by the ‘Yoga guru’
Baba Ramdev, with some of its
closely associated land dealers
had unlawfully acquired more than
400 acres of forested common
lands in the Aravilli hills of
Faridabad, Haryana. These
common lands belong to kot
village.
By
circumventing
restrictions put in place on sale of
such common village lands, by
making 300 power-of-attorny
agreements during 2014-16 the
common lands are ‘purchased’ by
Patanjali group of companies. Such
agreements for purchase are
banned in Delhi.
Kot is a semi-urban village
amid the Aravilli hills, just off the
state high-way connecting
Gurugram and Faridabad. About
80 percent of the village land falls
in the hilly terrain classified as ‘Gair
Mumkin Pahad’ or hills where
cultivation and development are
not permitted in Haryana. These
hilly tracts are classified as
‘Shahmat’ land or commons held
collectively by villagers. A state law,
as well as a 2011 Supreme Court
judgement had said such land
18
should be vested only with the
panchayat. Purchase, registration
and mutation of land records to
reflect the sale was not permitted
without the approval of panchayat
and state officials.
Kot village panchayat had not
given permission for the sale of its
common land. In 2011 advised by
the state the panchayat had even
filed a case to recover all its
shahmat land back from those who
had purchased it illegally and took
in to possession.
By setting up various
companies in the name of starting
yoga and health care centres and
developing herbal and organic
farming the Patanjali group has
illegally acquired those lands, and
took them in to possession.
With his clout with the central
government and Haryana state
government Baba Ramdev is able
to make the Haryana state
government to pass an amendment
to the Punjab Land Preservation
Act 1900, which meant to protect
forested areas not formally
recognised as such, which includes
800 acres of forested hilly terrain
in Kot village. The amendment
made on Feb 27, sought to do
away with the protection accorded
to Aravalli forests. With such an
amendment
the
Haryana
government kick-started a legal
process in kot village, calling it
“consolidation of land holdings”
which will affirm the Patanjali
group’s ownership of the land,
replaces its plots dispersed across
the village with contiguous land
parcels and allows it to carryout
both development activity and
agriculture which are currently
banned in the hilly commons.
For the past 7 years Haryana
government has tried for such
consolidation thrice. But the then
directors of consolidation have
objected
and
stopped
consolidation. In 2012 the then
director general of consolidation
stopped the consolidation and
written to the government “ ...In
case the consolidation of exercise
of entire Kot village, including ‘gair
mumkin pahad’ is carried out, it
would wrongly benefit certain
influential outsider purchases of
‘gair mumkin pahad’. “The
consolidation law meant to reverse
fragmentation of agricultural
holdings and to preserve the village
commons was rampantly abused to
allow private players to get
possession of hilly and non-agri
common land including forests
comprising villages of Mangar,
Bandhwai, Pozka-Gujar and Kot.”
“Huge investments of ill-gotten
money have been made through
firms for purchase of land to benfit
from the scheme”.
But undermining the just and
valid
objections,
Haryana
government passed consolidation
orders for Kot village and the
present director general of
consolidation
justifies
the
consolidation orders which
contradicts a 2011 SC judgement.
One Pravin Kumar Sharma
who has been buying land in Kot
village along with others for
Patanjali group justifies the
consolidation of Kot commons
stating that “consolidation in
shahmat land will help villagers.
Land shall be demarcated for roads
and access village. Right now they
do not even have access to their
crematorium and pasture land”.
The former director general of
consolidation who objected and
stopped consolidation in 2012, the
present principal secretary of the
state, Khemka, commented on
these consolidation orders that
“this consolidation shall confirm
contd. on page 17
Class Struggle