category Regional, chandigarh , , tags Regional, chandigarh , , DW BUREAU Chandigarh As per the commitment of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Department of Rural Development and Panchayat, has so far vacated about 12000 acres of Panchayat land from illegal possession, informed Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, here today. While interacting with the media persons after vacating 53 acres of Panchayat land from illegal possession at village Bhagwasi in Dera Bassi block on Friday afternoon, Rural Development and Panchayat Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar said that the drive against the encroachments would continue in coming days too. He said that there were a total of 64 acres of Panchayat land under encroachment in this village. As the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed 11 acres out of the total 64, so the remaining 53 acres were taken in possession today. Appreciating the officials of the Department for making the drive against encroachment a great success, the Cabinet Minister said that so far about 12000 acres of land has been vacated from the grab of encroachers, which has further increased a revenue to the tune of Rs.50 Crore as the vacated land has been given to the residents on lease for cultivation. Bhullar said that the Panchayat land vacated today has an approximate market value of Rs.40-45 crore as it falls in the industrial zone. The Cabinet Minister directed the officials of the department dealing with the cases of Panchayat land to dispose of the cases as the earliest possible so that the land could be taken back and it could become the source revenue generation for the the Panchayats. He urged the villagers who still have Panchayat land under illegal Possession across the state, to give up the possession from the encroached Upon Panchayat land voluntarily to assist the move of the state government for making Punjab a self-reliant state and enhancing its revenues. The officers who were present there included Joint Director (Shamlat Cell) Jagwinderjit Singh Sandhu, SP (Rural) Manpreet Singh, ASP Dera Bassi Ms Drapan Ahluwalia, Tehsildar Dera Bassi Kuldeep Singh, District Development and Panchayat Officer Amrinder Pal Singh Chauhan and BDPO Block Dera Bassi Ravneet Kaur. (editor dailyworld.in)