Talking to The Indian Express, Singh said that about 51 acres was given to the Bharatiya Yatra Kendra for a specific purpose with the consent of the government and the village panchayat.

``The panchayat later handed over an additional 20 acres to the Trust without the government's consent. Now, we have got a report that the Trust has encroached upon about 400 acres in addition to what was given to it by the panchayat and the government,'' Singh says. It may be recalled that The Indian Express, in April this year, had reported that the villagers wanted their land back from Chandra Shekhar.

ThePanchayats Minister had asked for a report on the land in question from the field staff. Later the matter was put before Chief Minister Bansi Lal and was discussed at a Cabinet meeting. The Chief Minister is understood to have given the ``go ahead'' to the Panchayat Minister to retrieve the encroached land.

A meeting of the two-member committee with the deputy commissioner, Gurgaon and other bureaucrats was convened today to work upon the modalities for getting the land released. The committee has asked the DC, Gurgaon, to give a report on the issue every fortnight.

Earlier, efforts made by the government had failed to yield results as the revenue officials, who had gone to Chandra Shekhar's ashram for `Nishandehi' (measurements), were refused entry by the CRPF guards.

The Panchayats Minister said that 71 acres can also be taken back from the Trust if during the course of the investigations it comes to light that the land was not being utilised for the purpose for which it was given to theTrust.

Around 470 acres has been fenced by the former prime minister and has massive afforestation along with an artificial lake.

The Panchayats Minister himself toured the area to take stock of the situation. He said that till now they have received individual representations from Bhondsi villagers demanding the retrieval of the panchayat land.

The former Prime Minister, however, in an interview with The Indian Express in April this year had said that the land had been given to him for cultivating and that he had given an undertaking that the villagers may take away the land but they should not cut trees.

``If they want the land back, they should come to me and say so. I will have no objection,'' Chandra Shekhar had told The Indian Express.

The Haryana Government, meanwhile, is extremely keen to get this massive chunk of land released from the Trust. The government's determined bid stems from the fact that the land in and around Gurgaon is valued high due to the rapid development inthe area.

Today's meeting followed by the tour of the area by the Revenue Minister and Panchayats Minister is the beginning of this exercise.