Sekhowal village land acquisition issue: AAP leader Manuke visits aggrieved families

Ludhiana: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has said that it would fight tooth and nail against the acquisition of 407 acres of Panchayat land at Sekhowal village, near here, in the name of industrial development. It said the party would oppose the anti-Dalit decisions of the Captain government at all level to secure justice to the displaced families.
This was stated by senior leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and deputy leader of opposition (Dy LoP) Bibi Sarabjit Kaur Manuke after meeting the aggrieved families on Friday, saying that the Captain government had committed a heist on as many as 100 by Dalit families which cultivating the prime land for decades now, in the name of industrial development. Bibi Manuke said the government’s move to acquire the land had exposed the anti-Dalit face of the Congress government.
Addressing media persons here on Friday, Manuke said that more than 100 families, mostly Dalit families, were making their ends meet by tilling the agricultural land for several decades now, adding that the ownership rights of the land were given to them by the Supreme Court following a long-drawn legal battle lasting 35 years.
Taking a swipe at Captain Amarinder Singh, Manuke said that during the tenures of the SAD-BJP and Congress-led governments at the centre and state, the farmers and the Dalit families had been subjected to untold sufferings due to their anti-Dalit stance, saying that apart from Sekhowal village land, the 33 per cent share of the Dalits in the village common lands earmarked for the community was being usurped by the government, only to be doled out to the land sharks enjoying political patronage.
She said the government should, instead of acquiring the village lands in the name of Industrial development, revive the sick units in the state, adding that the 1700 acre of land belonging to Bathinda thermal plant, which was acquired to raise the plant, was also being doled out to the patronized few for peanuts.     
Sarabjit Kaur Manuke assured that the Aam Aadmi Party would, in association with the affected farmers, fight the big battle of the Sekhowal village displaced Dalit families, saying the party would broach the issue in the coming sessions of Punjab Vidhan Sabha and Parliament. She said it would even move the High Court and the Supreme Court, if need be, to secure justice for the poor families, which had been marooned and rendered landless.