BJP Forms Panel to Protect People’s Homes and Land

Daily wage workers and farmers face threat of eviction

Himachal Pradesh BJP President Rajeev Bindal has announced the formation of the “Zameen Bachao, Makaan Bachao” (Save Land, Save Homes) committee to safeguard the homes and land of the state’s residents. BJP spokesperson and MLA Trilok Jamwal has been appointed convener of the committee, state vice-president Bihari Lal Sharma as member secretary, while Bilaspur MLA Sudhir Sharma, chief spokesperson Rakesh Jamwal, and Chopal MLA and state vice-president Balbir Verma will serve as members.

According to Sharma, daily wage laborers and farmers who have lived for generations on land allotted by successive governments now face the risk of eviction due to the Congress government’s indecisive stance. He said the BJP is determined to take this fight to a decisive stage to ensure these people are not rendered landless again. “Our struggle is entirely for the marginalized sections of society,” he stressed.

Sharma explained that the issue arises from provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Land Revenue Act, 1954. Section 163 of the Act empowers revenue officers to evict encroachers from public land, either on their own initiative or on an application from a co-owner. The Act also contained Section 163-A, which gave the state government authority to regularize encroachments on government land. However, on August 5, 2025, the Himachal Pradesh High Court struck down Section 163-A as unconstitutional. In September 2025, the Supreme Court ordered the status quo, providing temporary relief to farmers facing eviction.

He further noted that under the earlier land regularization policy, more than 165,000 people in the state had applied for regularization of encroachments. Introduced in 2002, the policy initially allowed regularization of up to five bighas of government land. Later, the BJP government expanded this by inserting Section 163-A, raising the limit to 20 bighas.