How Haryana govt is facilitating illegal privatisation of Kot common lands

Senior state officials have previously warned that the govt move will help private companies that illegally procured land in Aravalli, and that it should not be allowed

This is the third of a three-part series on land purchase by the Patanjali group and its associates in Faridabad's Kot village in Haryana.
 
On February 27, the Haryana government passed an amendment to the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900. The law is meant to protect forested areas not formally recognised as such. In Haryana, about 75,000 acres of land, including about 800 acres of forested hilly terrain in Kot village, is such — called ‘gair mumkin pahad’, held as Shamlat or common land. The amendment sought to do away with the protection accorded to Aravalli forests and allow