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
08/02/2023