LAHORE: Residents have protested the forcible eviction of the entire population of village Kothay Khurd, where Gurdwara Dera Sahib is located, for the creation of Kartarpur Corridor to facilitate pilgrims from India.

The government is allegedly forcing the entire village of Kothay Khurd to vacate their ancestral place for establishment of the Kartarpur Corridor. Around 600 villagers in Shakargarh tehsil of Narowal district were ordered by the district administration to vacate their houses immediately.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had performed the groundbreaking of the long-awaited corridor on Nov 29, 2018 connecting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur to Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur district.

Pakistani and Indian officials had agreed to expedite work to operationalise the Kartarpur Corridor on Thursday. Technical experts from both sides also held a discussion on key matters relating to the corridor, its construction, road and other technicalities.

Haji Arshad of Kothay Khurd told Dawn that his ancestors had settled in the village even before Partition and now their fifth generation lived here. He said recently the district administration officials came to his village and first started measuring and marking their agricultural land and later the houses. The officials told the residents that the government was planning to build Kartarpur Corridor on their land, he added.

After marking their land, heavy machinery started arriving in the area and their crops of wheat and animal fodder were destroyed. The administration then started constructing roads in and around their village, he added.

Arshad further said that no one listened to them when they asked the officials not to destroy their wheat crop and wait for a couple of months for its harvest. “No one has listened to us and the administration did not even tell us if they will compensate us for the damage to our crops or land that is being acquired for the corridor,” he complained.

He said the villagers were not sure whether the teams visiting them were government officials or some other agency, but were directing them to vacate their houses. “We are living in the area for centuries and it was not possible for us to leave the area and the graves of our ancestors,” he added.

Arshad said the government officials had only told them that they would be compensated after their land and houses had been acquired.

Another farmer, Muhammad Afzal, said that the officials arrived at their houses for measurements and marking and their families were disturbed as they had not been informed earlier about it. They had asked the administration to let them live peacefully in their ancestral houses. “We are sacrificing our agricultural land, but will not leave our ancestral houses and graves of our ancestors,” he asserted.

He further said the administration had told them the government would build a housing colony for the villagers and also pay them for their houses that had been acquired. “We only want to live in our ancestral houses because leaving the area will be like migrating within the country and this is cruelty with us,” he maintained.

He said the government had occupied 1,177 acres of villages Dodhay and Kothay Khurd around the gurdwara for the corridor. The administration had destroyed their crops and not paid them a single penny, he added.

Dhodhay village resident Khaliq Ahmad, whose 10 acres were acquired and the crop on it destroyed, said the government had taken away their land after intimidating villagers.

He said farmers were not informed about any compensation and the government was using the land for commercial purposes. “The crops on this agricultural land have been destroyed and the farmers not paid for it. Construction of roads has started at the cost of the farmers and their livelihoods,” he lamented.

Ahmad said the government had also destroyed their 40 tubewells in the area and felled trees. “We asked the officials to allow us to take away the logs of trees and debris of tubewells,” he claimed.

He said the farmers welcomed the construction of Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh pilgrims, but it should not be established at the cost of an entire village. He added that they were small farmers and peasants. “Though we have been promised some compensation, but we fear that our land will not be considered commercial. If our land is being used for commercial purposes, we should be paid the price accordingly,” he said.

He further said that Indian news channels had reported that the farmers across the border were being paid Rs5 to Rs7 million per acre for the land acquired for the corridor. “We also want commercial rates of the land and one public sector job for each family,” he demanded.

The Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee has demanded immediate compensation for farmers on commercial rates. They said that no ordinary compensation would be accepted and the affected families be given one job each.

Narowal Deputy Commissioner (DC) Waheed Asghar told Dawn that the government was acquiring the land under Section 4 of the Punjab Land Acquisition Act 1894 and it would pay compensation for the crop and land. He further said the government had expedited the process for building the corridor and the affectees would be paid compensation approximately in a week or two as the funds had not been released yet.

He claimed that the compensation was being assessed by the assessment committee formed by the government and they would have to count each structure falling under the project premises. The compensation would be paid according to the scheduled rate, he added.

The DC claimed that Dhodhay and Mankey village residents had not been asked to vacate their houses, but only those in Kothay Khurd. These residents would be paid proper compensation and a housing colony built for them. The Kothay Khurd village had been built on agricultural land and it was not constructed under the housing colony status, the DC claimed.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2019