Dalit families in Haryana's Bhagana village fled their homes due to a boycott by the Jat community over a land dispute. They have been camping outside the Hisar district secretariat. They have filed several complaints and writ petitions in the Haryana High Court. The conflict can be traced back to 2012, when the Bhagana panchayat allotted 280 acres of common land to families living below the poverty line (BPL) under the Mahatma Gandhi Grameen Basti Yojana. The move was in response to the Haryana government's announcement made in 2011 that land would be allotted to every BPL family. But the announcement never materialised and the panchayat decided to take matters into its own hands. The sarpanch (head of the panchayat), along with the panchayat members, prepared a scheme to divide and distribute the common land among the BPL families. They allocated 1,000 square yards of land to each uppercaste Jat family while dalit households were allocated 100 square yards each. This was because the common land was distributed in proportion to the land that the residents already owned, and the dalit families were mostly landless. As a result, the Jats allegedly managed to corner most of the redistributed land. The dalits were also asked to deposit Rs 1,000 as registration fee. In February 2012, the dominant Jat community in the village decided to lay claim to a playground that the dalits had been using for years. On February 23 that year, the Jats uprooted the trees that the dalits had planted around the playground and levelled the seating arrangements the latter had installed. The Jats also claimed that the playground was part of the village common land. When several Dalits approached the government authorities seeking help, the Jats became angry and called for the social and economic boycott of the dalit community. Unable to cope with the discrimination, 138 dalit families fled the village. In March 2014, Bhagana witnessed a second exodus after four minor girls belonging to the Dhanak community were allegedly gangraped by five Jat men. The accused were arrested but later released on bail. The incident instilled fear in the minds of the remaining Dalit households, and close to 100 Dhanak families left the village. They came to Delhi to demand justice, where they stayed for almost a month and met political leaders and government officials. They returned to their village after filing a First Information Report. Some members of the Dalit community filed a writ petition in 2014 in the Chandigarh High Court seeking rehabilitation of the affected families and prosecution of the accused. In March 2019, National Scheduled Caste Commission directed the state government to rehabilitate the victim families and provide them land and their houses. But, the rehabilitation remains pending. In February 2020, the High Court closed the case pertaining to the alleged gangrape as the court was informed that the accused in the case were acquitted. Awaiting justice, some dalit families are living in make shift tents near Hisar District Court complex, said Captain Tularam of Dr Ambedkar Sangarsh Shiksha Samiti. " While many others have relocated to other nearby villages in search of livelihood," he said.