LAHORE, Oct 1: The lessees of state pastures have criticized the Punjab government for dislodging them from the land they had been cultivating for the last 25 years.

In a press statement issued on Monday, they said on the one hand the government was granting proprietary rights to the five-year-old temporary lessees, and on the other it was depriving the 25 years old lessees of renewal of their deeds.

They regretted that taking advantage of the new open auction policy, the wealthy people had taken over the crops sown by them, the tubewells commissioned by them and the outhouses built by them.

They demanded that the open auction policy be withdrawn and the rules be amended to give them proprietary rights of saline land which was not cultivable.