A long pending land dispute  between Emaar builders and villagers of Maidawas has taken an ugly turn. The builder has developed a high-end residential township named Emerald Estate at Sector 65.

A resident of the society had uploaded a video on social media and alleged that some villagers allegedly barged inside the society on Tuesday night and uprooted trees and damaged the badminton court.

However, no RWA representative of the society came forward for the comments. But the guards deployed at the society have confirmed the incident.

When contacted, villagers who don’t wish to be named said they didn’t uproot any tree nor damaged any property of the society but they did admit that the matter was related to the land dispute.

According to the villagers, at the time of building the project the Emaar builder had assured the village panchayat that they will build a community center in lieu of taking the village land which approaches the cremation ground of the village.

“It was our long pending demand to the builder to build a community center as there is no space left in the village as some area of the project came on the village land. In 2017, the panchayat passed the proposal that the builder will build a community center in lieu of the land and submitted it to the top officials, but the builder didn't meet our demands and allegedly grabbed the village land,” said a villager on the condition of anonymity.

In connection with the matter the villagers had also filed a complaint on the CM window as the case was long overdue.

“Acting on the complaint, a team of the Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO) broke the wall of the society in the presence of the police force on July 27. Along with this, the basketball court inside the society was also broken,” he said.

The villagers further alleged that it was the builder who illegally cut the trees inside the society without obtaining permission from the forest department and blocked the way.

While contacting the Forest Department about the matter the forest official Karmbir Malik said, “We have received information about cutting of trees and investigating the matter. If anyone found guilty action will be taken as per the law,”.