Rajasthan HC stays anti-encroachment drive in Jalore's Odwada village

Jodhpur: In a big relief to residents of Odwada village in Jalore district, a single bench of the Rajasthan High Court's principal seat at Jodhpur reversed an earlier order and granted stay on a major anti-encroachment drive in the locality. On May 7, the high court had ordered to remove encroachments from the govt pasture land in the area and submit a compliance report.

A single bench of Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur granted the stay on Friday after petitioners submitted that they had land deeds issued by the administration.

The court issued notices to state govt authorities and directed additional advocate general Rajesh Panwar not to evict villagers from the land for which they had legitimate deeds issued by competent authorities.

"Those persons, who do not have any valid document for holding possession of the land, may be removed treating them as encroachers," the single bench order said.

Following the earlier order, the Jalore district administration in Ahore had started an anti-encroachment drive on 35 acres of pasture land in Odwada village with the help of police on Thursday. Hundreds of women and children resisted the govt action. During the drive, fences and boundary walls were removed but residential structures were left alone from the 'oran' land, a local govt term for the grazing land for community cattle.

As per the previous order, a total of 342 residential properties in the village were classified as encroachments. On Thursday, 70 encroachments were removed and around 198 were marked for taking action on Friday. The single bench order came before this could happen. Some 268 encroachments remain there now.

Oppn politicians question move to remove villagers
“Despite villagers having requisite documents issued by competent state govt authorities for holding land, the petitioners are being dispossessed without taking proper steps in accordance with the law,” said Shyam Sunder Paliwal, the counsel for petitioners. The drive had come under fire on social media with politicians from the opposition, including former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and son Vaibhav Gehlot, Congress candidate from Jalore Lok Sabha seat, questioning the move to remove villagers, who they claim have been living in the land for gen erations and hold valid land documents.

Local MLA Chhagan Singh Rajpurohit claimed that he had met Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and briefed him about the matter. Speaking to the media, Jalore collector Pooja Parth said that the drive was carried out in compliance with the HC order and claimed that only boundary walls were removed. She said that the administration had followed the legal process and issued notices in advance to all encroachers. “We are conducting a survey and will provide support as per govt schemes for landless people,” she said, refuting claims th at violence or force were used against villagers.