With fewer then 10 days to go for the Punjab Assembly polls, efforts are on to woo the powerful deras (sect) to garner votes of followers.
Punjab Congress president Capt. Amarinder Singh on Thursday said leaseholders of Pepsu dera properties would not be removed from their land, and full protection would be provided to them by the Congress by bringing in legislation, if needed.
Capt. Singh said that to find a solution to the ‘lease’ problem, ‘dera mohants’ would be taken into confidence. The Congress would make sure that the leaseholders were not deprived of their homes for no fault of theirs. He said that in the erstwhile Pepsu area, kings used to donate land to ‘Sants and Mohants’ of deras, who, in turn, would give it out the same on 99-year lease to the general public to generate funds to run the deras. However, leasing of land by deras was banned in 1980 by the Punjab government.
Capt. Singh said the worst affected were those who took land on lease before 1980, as a High Court ruling had rendered all dera land leases null and void.
The Congress leader said: “Mohants have gone to the Supreme court against the High Court ruling and the court has given a stay in the matter. Its final orders are yet to come, raising apprehensions among the leaseholders. With 60% of the people living on leased land in Patiala, the issue threatens to disrupt the lives of a large section of the region’s population.”
Pointing out that the people had been settled on the leased land for decades, Capt. Singh said it was the State government’s duty to protect their rights.
