Freedom fighter's kin threatens to return gifted land to govt

An 80-year-old adopted daughter of freedom fighter Gian Chand Gandhi, considered to be an associate of Mahatama Gandhi and Bhagat Singh, today threatened to return a gifted land to the Centre, claiming the government had "failed" to provide its possession to her.
The Centre had gifted her father a piece of land in recognition of his contribution to the freedom movement, said Kamlesh Gandhi, Gian Chand's daughter.
The Union government had gifted a plot of 100 kanal to freedom fighter Gian Chand Gandhi adjoining to the plot of Shaheed Bhagat Singh at Bir Peerawali village nearby Hisar in Haryana (then joint Punjab) in 1955.

However, the plot is under possession of some farmers since then, she claimed.
Born in this industrial town in 1917, Gian Chand Gandhi joined the freedom struggle in Lahore with Mahatama Gandhi and revolutionary Bhagat Singh and others.
Kamlesh said her father went from pillar to post to get the plot vacated from the present owner, but all in vain.

The then district collector of Hisar had made a sale deed of the plot in the favour of Kamlesh Gandhi while getting a revenue of of Rs 17,412 and 50 paisa in 1987 but her agriculture tenant captured her land illegally, she alleged.

Gian Chandhi was resident of this town and shifted to Hisar when the Central government allotted the plot in 1955 after Independence. He died in 1962 and since then his only surviving daughter Kamlesh had been struggling to get the plot for the last 60 years.
Presently, she is living in an old age home in Batala for the last four years.
Kamlesh said that she would soon meet the President and the Prime Minister to tell them her tale of woe.
"If she failed to meet them then she would hand over the sale deed of the gifted plot to the Central government," she added.