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Citing development needs, the government took over Delhi’s once thriving commons. Now, much of this land is neglected, walled off or encroached on by the rich. https://scroll.in/article/1043344/how-delhi-ate-up-its-village-commons 

A board in the middle of the dried pond announces that it is situated on “gaon sabha” land. This is a category of land that, under the Delhi Land Reforms Act, 1954, is jointly owned by a village, and comprises areas used by the community, including for the digging of wells, collecting forest produce or as burial grounds. The act vests the rights of usage of such common lands with the gaon sabha – the representative body that governs a village or a group of villages, whose executive arm is the gaon panchayat.

But blame for the pond’s mismanagement does not rest with the gaon sabha. In 1990, the Delhi government issued a notification that dissolved all the gaon panchayats constituted under the 1954 act, and transferred the ownership of the gaon sabha lands to the revenue department of the Delhi government.

With that, the divisional commissioner of Delhi, an officer of the revenue department, took over the duties and powers of the gaon panchayats

by Vaishnavi Rathore

08/02/2023

The ongoing anti-encroachment drive in Jammu and Kashmir has sparked a heated debate and has become a major source of contention.

https://thewire.in/rights/watch-jammu-kashmir-anti-encroachment-drive-homeless 

by Faizan Mir

08/02/2023

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Journalist who exposed Barsu Refinery project mowed down Free Speech Collective. FEBRUARY 7, 2023 https://freespeechcollective.in/2023/02/07/journalist-who-exposed-barsu-refinery-project-mowed-down/
In a shocking incident, journalist Shashikant Warishe was mowed down and crushed by a vehicle allegedly driven by Pandharinath Amberkar, a local land-dealer and accused in several land grab cases in the controversial Barsu refinery in the western Konkan region of Maharashtra, barely a few hours after he published a report in Marathi newspaper Mahanagari Times about his links with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.