Will raise issue of Sikh farmers' eviction with Uttar Pradesh govt, Amit Shah, says Punjab CM

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said he will take up the issue of the alleged attempts by the Uttar Pradesh government to displace over 30,000 Sikh farmers with his counterpart Yogi Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Expressing concern over media reports suggesting that the Sikh families are being sought to be displaced after living in UP for three generations, the CM said if true, it is ‘undoubtedly a matter of worry'.

The CM in a statement here said he will write to both Shah and Aditynath to “ascertain the truth and get to the bottom of it”.

Any such act is against the federal structure of India and its constitutional polity, which gave every Indian the freedom to live in any part of the country, he said.

These families had been settled in the districts of Rampur, Bijnaur and Lakhimpur for three generations now and had even received proprietorship rights from the UP government back in 1980, said the CM.

He questioned the rationale behind the reported attempts to dislocate them and push them out of their homes.

Reports suggest that these Sikh families had shifted to 17 villages in the three districts of Uttar Pradesh in 1947 at the time of the Partition and had with their hard work converted the forest area into arable land, the CM said.

Any administrative problems in land ownership of these families can be resolved by following the due process of law, without resorting to such harsh measures, he stressed.

On Monday, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had said it will take up the issue with Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath.