Srinagar: The district administration Srinagar on Saturday undertook a massive anti-encroachment drive across the district to retrieve the illegally occupied land and reclaimed about 409 kanal of prime State and Kahcharie land worth over Rs 240.58 crore from influential land grabbers.
Officials said that the anti-encroachment operation was launched in all 7 tehsils of the district including Eidgah, north Srinagar, Pantha Chowk, Khanyar, south Srinagar, central Shalteng and Chanapora tehsil. They said that the special anti-encroachment squads constituted by Srinagar district administration headed by respective tehsildars conducted mass scale anti-encroachment drives while taking assistance of Police and other concerned departments.
Officials said that a team of Revenue and Police officers and officials headed by Tehsildar north Srinagar, Kaiser Mehmood launched a massive anti-encroachment drive in Dara and Danihama villages and retrieved 12 kanal of State and Kacharie land worth Rs 3.60 crore from the alleged land grabbers.
They said that in Ahal village of the tehsil, the anti-encroachment team also retrieved 35 kanal of land including a hotel worth Rs 35 crore.
Officials said that similarly, in a major anti-encroachment drive launched at Balhama village under the supervision of Tehsildar Pantha Chowk, Rakib Ahmad 77 kanal of Kacharie land was retrieved under Survey No 1522, 1442 and 1443 having value of over Rs 33 crore.
They said that in Kreshibal and Anchar villages in Eidgah tehsil, a Revenue team headed by Tehsildar Ishfaq Ahmad Khan retrieved 101 kanal and 17 marlas of State land worth Rs 40.74 crore from the alleged illegal occupants.
Officials said that in south tehsil of Srinagar, a team headed by Tehsildar Moean Azhar conducted a massive anti-encroachment drive in KP Bagh and retrieved 40 kanal and 17 marlas of Kacharie land worth Rs 51 crore from the alleged encroachers.
They said that in Khushipora and Rampura villages of central Shalteng tehsil 21 kanal of Kahcharie land worth Rs 16 crore has been evicted from the alleged land grabbers including a commercial complex.
Officials said that in Chanapora tehsil over 87 kanal and 11 marlas of Kahcharie land was also evicted from the alleged land grabbers in Laloo Sheshgari Bagh and Nowgam area having value of Rs 42.5 crore under the supervision of Tehsildar Chanpora, Saqib Saleem.
They said that in Khanyar tehsil 35 kanal of State land was also retrieved in Nishat and Brane villages worth Rs 14.64 crore under Survey No 43, 3557, 2919 and 3157 under the supervision of Tehsildar Khanyar Aailya Tabasum.
An official said that in terms of a government order No Rev (LB) of 2003 dated September 2, 2003, exchange of land was approved in favour of Shabnum Gani to the extent of 1 kanal and 9 marlas in Survey No 4901/3557 of Brien (Mutation No 6402).
They said that the land given to the State in exchange was significantly less in value (valued almost Rs 30,000 per kanal in 2003) in comparison to land given to Shabnam Gani Lone in exchange (valued at Rs 50 lakh per kanal in 2003).
The officials said that the land was adjacent to forest and sensitive eco-zone, and thereby constructing houses in this area constituted flagrant violations of the rules.
With regard to the ongoing anti-encroachment drives undertaken in Srinagar district, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Muhammad Aijaz applauded the efforts of the anti-encroachment squads.
He asked them to continue the anti-encroachment drives in their respective jurisdictions as per standing instructions with added zeal and dedication so that all State and Kahcharie land is retrieved.
Officials said that the J&K administration on Thursday said that the encroached State land was being retrieved from the big vested interests only with the purpose of reverting it back for public use.
They said that the LG’s administration had sought to clarify that the common masses and poor people would not be touched during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive launched to retrieve the State land from the encroachers.
The officials said that the LG’s administration had also said that the government was concerned about safeguarding the interests of the poor people and only those who had illegally occupied the State land by using their positions would be dealt with strictly.
They said that the government had reiterated that retrieved land would be used exclusively for projects and programmes of public importance.