Katchi abadi dwellers: Minorities being denied residential land rights
Scheduled caste Hindus say discrimination being meted out to them while awarding land rights certificates.
RAWALPINDI:
Minority residents of katchi abadis in Punjab have been clamouring for residential land rights since the inception of Pakistan as the majority of them have been denied that right, forcing them to live a life of nomads.
Hindus, especially scheduled castes including Bheels, Kolhis and Menghwadhs, who comprise almost 0.5 million people, remain the biggest victims of this denial. Majority of Hindus are still homeless in Punjab and those who live in mud houses face eviction threats.
The Hindus have time and again demanded the provincial government to award them residential land rights but no substantial progress has so far been made in this regard.
Scheduled Caste Rights Movement Pakistan Chairman (SCRM) Ramesh Jaipal, while talking to The Express Tribune, said during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s tenure, certificates were distributed among the slum dwellers living near the cities and main urban areas but those who lived far-off got nothing.
The ownership rights certificates were also distributed during Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s tenure but a majority of them got nothing of the sort for unknown reasons, he claimed.
On December 16, 2013, Hindus from Punjab staged a protest in front of the Punjab Assembly demanding ownership rights and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the time announced to allot land to 426,000 families living in katchi abadis, but the scheduled castes were against left in the lurch, Jaipal claimed.
He added that the certificates were again distributed among MPAs and MNAs belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, who further distributed those certificates in their respective constituencies.
Interestingly, those certificates carry no legal value as there is no record of those lands in the Revenue Board Department.
“We are already facing religious intolerance, kidnappings and forced conversions and above all we are homeless,” he said, demanding to award residential rights to all those slum dwellers who have been using land for 15 years and living in colonies consisting of 40 houses each.
A Hindu religious leader, Guru Sukh Dev Ji, said due to this denial, slum dwellers were facing difficulty in acquiring CNICs and casting votes in elections. He also claimed that patwaris were allegedly allotting the katchi abadi lands to their favourites.
Samaj Sewa Organisation President Shukantala Devi said the price of land was increasing and the government was developing new infrastructure and landlords and influentials have started expelling poor Hindus to occupy their lands and no one was stopping them.
“The government has allotted lands to retired army officers and even to foreigners but the Hindus are being denied this right,” he said.
Anjaman-e-Muzareen President Dr Christopher said they had been struggling for the ownership rights for the last 14 years but in vain.
“We have a major contribution in the agricultural production of Pakistan but we are homeless and even have no rights over lands where we grow crops,” he said, adding that everyone including landlords, feudals and government departments were exploiting them.
Punjab Parliamentary Secretary Human Rights Minorities Affairs Tahir Khalil Sindhu said that after the 18th Amendment, the subject has become the prerogative of the provincial government.
“We are ready to give them residential rights but representatives of minorities are not sincere,” he claimed. “No one has presented any bill in the provincial assembly despite our repeated requests,” he said further, adding that, “We will immediately pass such a bill as we have been directed by the chief minister to sort out all these issues.”
PML-N MPA and Member Law and Parliamentary Affairs Kanji Raam said the Punjab government was already working on the issue and the government was allotting three marlas near cities and five marlas in villages at a cost of Rs472 per marla to each family.
“Town municipal administrations and city district governments are issuing letters to the slum dwellers in this regard,” he claimed, saying further that “The government has decided to give residential rights to all those who have been living in a particular place for the 25 years.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2014.
Minority residents of katchi abadis in Punjab have been clamouring for residential land rights since the inception of Pakistan as the majority of them have been denied that right, forcing them to live a life of nomads.
Hindus, especially scheduled castes including Bheels, Kolhis and Menghwadhs, who comprise almost 0.5 million people, remain the biggest victims of this denial. Majority of Hindus are still homeless in Punjab and those who live in mud houses face eviction threats.
The Hindus have time and again demanded the provincial government to award them residential land rights but no substantial progress has so far been made in this regard.
Scheduled Caste Rights Movement Pakistan Chairman (SCRM) Ramesh Jaipal, while talking to The Express Tribune, said during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s tenure, certificates were distributed among the slum dwellers living near the cities and main urban areas but those who lived far-off got nothing.
The ownership rights certificates were also distributed during Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s tenure but a majority of them got nothing of the sort for unknown reasons, he claimed.
On December 16, 2013, Hindus from Punjab staged a protest in front of the Punjab Assembly demanding ownership rights and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the time announced to allot land to 426,000 families living in katchi abadis, but the scheduled castes were against left in the lurch, Jaipal claimed.
He added that the certificates were again distributed among MPAs and MNAs belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, who further distributed those certificates in their respective constituencies.
Interestingly, those certificates carry no legal value as there is no record of those lands in the Revenue Board Department.
“We are already facing religious intolerance, kidnappings and forced conversions and above all we are homeless,” he said, demanding to award residential rights to all those slum dwellers who have been using land for 15 years and living in colonies consisting of 40 houses each.
A Hindu religious leader, Guru Sukh Dev Ji, said due to this denial, slum dwellers were facing difficulty in acquiring CNICs and casting votes in elections. He also claimed that patwaris were allegedly allotting the katchi abadi lands to their favourites.
Samaj Sewa Organisation President Shukantala Devi said the price of land was increasing and the government was developing new infrastructure and landlords and influentials have started expelling poor Hindus to occupy their lands and no one was stopping them.
“The government has allotted lands to retired army officers and even to foreigners but the Hindus are being denied this right,” he said.
Anjaman-e-Muzareen President Dr Christopher said they had been struggling for the ownership rights for the last 14 years but in vain.
“We have a major contribution in the agricultural production of Pakistan but we are homeless and even have no rights over lands where we grow crops,” he said, adding that everyone including landlords, feudals and government departments were exploiting them.
Punjab Parliamentary Secretary Human Rights Minorities Affairs Tahir Khalil Sindhu said that after the 18th Amendment, the subject has become the prerogative of the provincial government.
“We are ready to give them residential rights but representatives of minorities are not sincere,” he claimed. “No one has presented any bill in the provincial assembly despite our repeated requests,” he said further, adding that, “We will immediately pass such a bill as we have been directed by the chief minister to sort out all these issues.”
PML-N MPA and Member Law and Parliamentary Affairs Kanji Raam said the Punjab government was already working on the issue and the government was allotting three marlas near cities and five marlas in villages at a cost of Rs472 per marla to each family.
“Town municipal administrations and city district governments are issuing letters to the slum dwellers in this regard,” he claimed, saying further that “The government has decided to give residential rights to all those who have been living in a particular place for the 25 years.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2014.