Faridkot, August 23: The Punjab Wakf Board has accused a former vice-president of the SGPC of axing several full-grown trees on 3-acre land near Pacca village, 7 km from here.
Kewal Singh, son of former Agriculture Minister Gurdev Singh Badal, claimed that only one dead tree was felled as it was touching high-voltage electricity wires near the national highway.
Punjab Wakf Board, Estate Officer, Haroon Rashid Khan, in a complaint to the police, alleged that many full-grown green trees were axed without the mandatory permission from the authorities concerned. He alleged that about 8,400 sq yd of prime property of the Board was under the illegal possession of Kewal Singh for the last many years and the trees were on this land.
Kewal refuted the allegations, claiming that he was in the legal and rightful possession of the land since 1992 when it was allotted to him. “I axed only one tree standing in front of my petrol pump for the safety of passersby as it was touching high-voltage electricity wires,” he claimed.
Sadar SHO Sanjeev Kumar said the police were yet to investigate the complaint.
The Board is already fighting a legal battle with Kewal to get the land on the Faridkot-Amritsar national highway vacated. Board officials claimed the land was a graveyard and registered in the All-India Gazette of August 7, 1971.
Source Tribune India
