SAS Nagar, September 05, 2024:- Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann-led state government is always committed to safeguarding the interests of farmers, said MLA SAS Nagar Kulwant Singh Mohali, today, here.
      Handing over the appointment letters to the wards of deceased farmers who lost their lives to oppose the anti-farmer bills in the farmers’ movement, he said that so far a total of 660 such dependents of deceased farmers have been accommodated on Government jobs on compassionate grounds, out of which 453 have been given jobs in Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department of Punjab.
     Today, the five appointees have also been given joba in the Agriculture Department as Beldars (Class 4), said MLA Kulwant Singh. The five wards who were given the appointment letters today included Ashwandeep Singh S/o Narinder Singh, Mahinder Singh S/O Bahadur Singh, Manga Khan S/o Hamid Khan, Gurpreet Singh S/o Sarom Singh and Harshpreet Singh  S/o Gurmeet (All belong to Patiala district).
     Interacting with the Media persons, MLA Kulwant Singh said that most of the demands of the farmers are related to the Centre Government and Punjab Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann is continuously meeting the farmers to resolve their local issues related to the state. He said that the decisions taken by the Bhagwant Singh Mann Government to promote farming, facilitating them with canal-based irrigation besides a hike in price of sugarcane are widely appreciated by the farming community.
     Terming an amendment in Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act 1995’s section 20 to pave the way for waiving the No Objection Certificate condition, a historic step towards the longstanding problem of attaining legal possession documents, MLA Kulwant Singh said that there was a nexus of some people who allured these innocent people in the name of providing plots in illegal and unauthorised Colonies. But, as per the Commitment made by the Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann, the State Government has passed a bill to amend the clause of the PAPRA Act 1995 to make these innocent people the owners of the land acquired by them in the unauthorised and illegal colonies. He said that as per the amendment, the property up to 500 yards owned by the people in illegal colonies would be registered in their names without demanding any NOC provided the documents of sale/Power of Attorney etc. should be before July 30, 2024, and the last date for registration of documents is November 02.
     Similarly, in future to curb the illegal colonies’ mafia, the provision of stringent punishment from 5 to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 25 lakh to 5 Crores would be imposed on the illegal developers.
      He said that the decision taken by the state government had made lakhs of people happy, who were feeling cheated at the hands of these illegal developers and land mafia.
     Chief Agriculture Officers Dr Gurmail Singh and Agriculture Officer Gurdial Kumar were also present.