Srinagar, May 31: It is a case of back to square one. Barely a few days after authorities retrieved some land from encroachers in Zainakote Industrial Estate, the land grabbers, according to the unit holders, have again pounced upon the property.
 President IE Zainakote, Shahjahan Khan told Greater Kashmir that only a few days after a team of officials headed by deputy commissioner Srinagar Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo had demolished illegal structures in the estate and retrieved six kanals of land, the grabbers have again become active and encroached upon the land in question.
 “In the face of fresh encroachments by the grabbers, the earlier action by the authorities seems nothing but an eyewash,” he said.
 Khan attributed the encroachment to lack of fencing at the place. “Ideally when the land was retrieved it should have been fenced immediately. But the authorities literally left for open for the encroachers again,” he said.
 The unit holders accused some locals of trying hard that the land was not given back to the estate.
 “Besides, a nearby school has also encroached upon the estate land. Although the authorities demolished the wall of the school, they again erected a tin sheet there notwithstanding that the revenue records show the land belonging to the estate. This is a serious concern for us,” they said.
 According to Khan, the encroachment in the estate dates back to 1980s, when around 20 Kanals of land in the estate were encroached upon by local villagers.
 Deputy General Manager SICOP, Azhar Majeed, said the SICOP had made strenuous efforts to retrieve the land and the government too had provided them the support.
 While acknowledging that it was necessary to fence the land to prevent further encroachment, he said it was the construction wing of the SICOP which was supposed to take up this job.
 He admitted that the said wing had not yet taken up this job.
 “Once the land is fenced, the SICOP could go for allotments as per rules and the unit holders too could acquire the land legally,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 31 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 31 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 1 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST