Kathua, Aug 5: A historical water body is at the very of extinction in this township as the land gabbers are openly encroaching the public property that too under the very noose of the local administration.
 Locals said that if the encroachment remains unchecked, the water body (a pond) in Taraf Tajwal village will soon disappear. Situated in the township the part of the water body has already been encroached and some residential buildings have also come up during the last few years.
 The water body in the shape of a pond covers an area of around seven kanals and comprised under Khasra No 300 of village Taraf Tajwal in Ward Number 11.
 On the northern side of the pond, there is a road which connects Ward Number 10 with 11, while. On the eastern and western side of the pound the encroachments are physically visible. The encroachers have either construction residential houses or converted the public land into their private fields.
 “The area adjoining the pound is a Shamlaat Deh land out of which the government acquired around two kanals for the construction of road”, Arun Kumar, a local resident said adding that with the land acquisition the area of the pound was reduced to 5 kanals from 7 kanals. “The matter did not end here. After the government the encroachers stepped in and see the pound has shrunk to only around 3 Kanals”.
 He said that some years back during rainy season huge amount of water converged into pond and started overflowing into nearby houses of locality. “On the demand of locals a drain was constructed on southern side of the pond which restricted the water flow. This created dry portion of land near the pound giving an opportunity to some musclemen to encroach upon the public property”, another local resident alleged.
 He further said that around half a dozen new houses including a two storey building has been constructed on west side of the pond illegally, with active connivance of revenue officials.
 “The land grabbers have strong political links and are also hand in glove with revenue officials due to which no action has been taken against their nefarious designs to encroach water bodies”, a senior citizen of the area said.
  He further alleged that the district administration was apprised about the matter but no action was taken. 
 When contacted Assistant Commissioner (Revenue) Kathua, Puneet Sharma however assured that the matter would be looked into and if any encroachment was found on the water body same will be removed. 

Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Aug 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 5 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 6 Aug 2012 00:00:00 IST