In September, 2021, Punjab’s former Chief Minister, Mr. Charanjit Singh Channi held his first cabinet meeting and announced that the State Government would roll out a series of pro-poor initiatives from 2nd October, 2021. One of these included the simplification of the process for allotment of 5 marla plots from village common land to beneficiaries. This would also include the homeless and poor Scheduled Caste (Dalit) populations residing in villages as per the provisions of Rule 13-A of The Punjab Village Common Land (Regulation) Rules, 1964.

Subsequently, the application process for having marla plots allotted began throughout Punjab. Forty Dalit families of Koharka village in Naushehra Pannuan block of Tarn Taran district had also applied for this. The Deputy Commissioner accepted the applications and marked the matter to Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO)  for further action.

In September 2021, following BDPO’s orders, the gram panchayat of Koharka passed a resolution declaring that a list of beneficiaries will be prepared as per the applications already given to the district administration. And that 5 marla plots measuring 125 square yards were to be be allotted from the village common land to such beneficiaries.

However, with the change in Government after the State Assembly Elections in March,2022, the gram panchayat advertised the whole cultivable village common land for fresh auction in May, 2022, without reserving any land for allocation of 5 Marla plots.

The 40 Dalit families who were applicants for these 5 Marla plots objected to this action. They demanded that the process of allotting 5 Marla plots by completed as initiated under the previous State Government's orders. When their concerns were not addressed, they sat on a protest on the village common land for an indefinite period, starting from 9th May, 2022. This protest continues to this day. The protest is being supported by the Dalit Dasta Virodhi Andolan (DDVA) which is a leading organisation fighting for Dalit’s land rights and socio-economic rights in North India, especially Punjab.

The protesting families also wrote to the Deputy Commissioner alleging that they were being unduly pressurised by the Gram Panchayat along with other politically influential people of the locality to end their protest.

LCW was informed by the affected families and leaders of DDVA that the Panchayat had swapped SC quota cultivable common land with the General quota land without following existing rules. They alleged that after the two were swapped, the Panchayat auctioned off the lands in May 2022. The local BDPO also issued a show cause notice to the protesting families which saying that they were occupying the village common land illegally. However, the District Administration is giving no clear reply as to whether the State Government has discontinued the 5 Marla Plot scheme started by the previous Government or not.

To address the above swapping of lands, the protesting families had filed a complaint with the District Collector's (DC) office, Tarn Taran demanding that a probe committee headed by an Sub Divisional Magistrate rank's officer may be set up to enquire the matter and a fresh auction of the entire village common land must take place on the basis of report presented by the above committee. They demanded that such report should be prepared after thorough inspection of village’s land maps and land records. However, the DC Office has not taken any step so far to address this issue.

After they did they not receive any response from the DC office, the 40 affected families filed a complaint with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) in July 2022.

In October 2022, two incidents occurred in Koharka village, which made the situation volatile. A Dalit youth suffered burn injuries when the field he was working on was set on fire for stubble burning by upper caste landlords. Dalit youth of the village lodged a complaint to the police against the perpetrators. On the following day, upper caste landlords of the village mobilised members of their community to the protesting site. They attached the site by burning the tent that was erected by the protestors. The women present at the site were also alleged to have been abused.

In November 2022, the 40 affected Dalit families wrote another letter to the NCSC to seek its urgent intervention in the matter. The NCSC issued a notice to the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police of Tarn Taran to share a report of the action taken by them on the matter.

The core question that protestors now have is this: how can a process that was initiated on the orders of the State Government in accordance with the state land laws, and approved by multiple state agencies, be declared illegal without a written and reasoned order by the present State Government or District Administration?