Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh), Nov 8 (IANS): He was 24 years old when he began his protest and, today, when he is 59 years old, his struggle has borne fruits.

Vijay Singh has spent the past 35 years protesting against the alleged grabbing of more than a thousand bighas of public land by a former MLA and demanding its return.

Singh started his protest when Shamli was part of Muzaffarnagar district and he protested in front of the district collectorate.

In 2011, Shamli became a separate district and Singh was asked to protest at different premises.

He resumed his sit-in right in the middle of Muzaffarnagar at Shiv Chowk.

"Shamli was a new district, with new offices and officers I did not know. I was unaware of the system and also felt that my life was in danger there back then, as I was up against powerful people who wielded considerable clout in the area," he said.

While protesting for land that belonged, not to him, but the government, Vijay Singh lost his job as a teacher.

An RTI reply has now proved that his cause was right all along.

It was in April 2019 that Singh complained to the Shamli administration during Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's rally in Kairana, after which an inquiry was set up.

"I was protesting at the venue of the rally when the district officials came up to me and asked me to elaborate on the issue. I handed over my complaint to them," he said.

Vijay Singh then ran from pillar to post, asking authorities about the result of the inquiry. "I filed a right to information (RTI) query in October 2019, asking for a report of the inquiry. I received a response to the RTI request only a few days ago," he said.

The reply proved that he was right all along.

The report reveals that the former MLA, along with several of his associates, had taken illegal possession of the government land in Chausana village.

The 17-page report states that several government records belonging to these farming lands were forged. Sources say that the report was sent to Lucknow long back, but no action was taken by authorities.

When asked, the district magistrate of Shamli, Jasjeet Kaur, said, "It is an old matter and after it came to my notice, I instructed the sub-divisional magistrate of Oon to dig the details out. Action will be taken accordingly."

Incidentally, Singh's crusade against the land mafia has earned him a place in the Limca Book of Records for the longest protest against illegal possession of public land.