Ganderbal: The anti-encroachment drive to retrieve the illegally occupied State and Kahcharai land in Ganderbal district continued on Monday with authorities retrieving a huge chunk of land from the alleged encroachers. Official sources said that the retrieved land was handed over to the Horticulture Department for development of orchards.
“Under the ongoing anti-encroachment drive, Ganderbal district administration on Monday retrieved over 66 kanal illegally occupied State and Kahcharai land in the district. The eviction drive was carried out jointly by civil and Police administration in different tehsils of the district,” an official statement issued here said.
The Revenue teams retrieved approximately 18,702 kanal of illegally occupied government land allegedly by various land grabbers till Monday, which include 393 kanal land from “influential persons”.
“During Monday’s eviction drive, the total retrieval of State land in various tehsils of Ganderbal stood at 58 kanal including 35 kanals from influential persons while 8 kanal Kahcharai land was also retrieved from influential persons,” the statement said.
During the anti-encroachment drive, JCB machines were deployed to dismantle the boundary walls and other structures erected illegally on the government land besides notice boards indicating the status of land, survey number, and location was installed on the site.
“In estate Wussan Kangan, the Revenue authorities retrieved 38 kanal and 8 malras of encroached State and Kahcharai land from influential persons including businessman and top government officers and officials,” the official statement said.
The officials said that most of the retrieved land in the estate Wussan has been handed over to the Horticulture Department for development of orchards.
With regard to the ongoing anti-encroachment drives undertaken in Ganderbal, the district administration has assured that the common masses and poor people would not be touched.
“The drive has been launched to retrieve the State land from encroachers and only those who have illegally occupied the government land by using their positions will be dealt with strictly and retrieved land will be used exclusively for projects and programmes of public importance,” officials said.