Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 19: In a decision of far reaching consequences, the Government is conducting survey of four VVIP localities inhabited by former Union Ministers, ex-Chief Ministers, serving and retired bureaucrats and leading colonizers on outskirts of Jammu City to identify nearly 2000 kanals forest land running into thousands of crores of rupees encroached upon by them in raising palatial bungalows and construction of flats.
The Government by an order of General Administration Department (GAD) recently has constituted high level team of Forest and Revenue Departments and Jammu Development Authority (JDA) to identify the land, demarcate it and forward a report to the Government for taking all legal steps to get the encroached land of the Forest Department vacated from the VVIPs.
“The four VVIP colonies, where the survey has been ordered, included Bhatindi, Sidhra, Sunjawan and Raika, all falling on outskirts of the City, which have witnessed mushrooming growth of habitations during past one and half decades with several senior political leaders including former Union Ministers, ex-Chief Ministers, bureaucrats and builders having raised bungalows while construction of private flats by the builders was also going on in full swing,’’ official sources told the Excelsior.
The high level team constituted by the Government by an order of the GAD for identifying encroachments on the Forest land was headed by Chief Conservator of Forests (Demarcation) OP Sharma and comprised Regional Director, Land Records, Rajesh Sharavan, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Jammu VK Senthil, Director Land Management in JDA Dr Gurjit Singh and DFO Demarcation BL Raina.
Sources said though the Government has set the process into motion to vacate encroachments from forest land all over the State, it has started special drive for four localities as no previous Government had bothered to touch the VVIP localities, where influential builders and colonizers have been making thousands of crores by raising flats and selling plots under well knit nexus of officials of Forest, Revenue and other Departments in the past.
“The high level team was constituted and drive ordered after an in-house survey conducted by the Forest Department revealed that at least 2000 kanals of land in the four localities, which once belonged to the Forest Department had been encroached upon by the VVIP and colonizers in-league with officials of several Departments,’’ sources said, adding that value of the encroached land runs into several thousands of crores.
Pointing out that the high level Government Committee has already started its job, sources pointed out that the Revenue Department officials were not forthcoming with full help initially. In view of this, they said, the Government has decided to attach some permanent officials of Revenue Department with the Committee for two months so that they have to perform only one task and were not assigned any other work during this period to ensure their full involvement with the Panel.
“The Committee has also found that in some of the cases, the Forest and Revenue Departments had destroyed the record pertaining to four localities. However, some of the records dating back to Maharaja’s time was available to establish that the encroached land was green area,’’ sources said.
Sources said the involvement of officials of three major Departments in the high powered Committee including Forest, Revenue and JDA would help the Government in identifying the Government land encroached upon by the builders and take steps to vacate it.
When approached for comments, Forests Minister Bali Bhagat confirmed that the Government has set up high powered Committee by the GAD order to identify large scale encroachments on the Forest land in four VVIP localities.
“We are identifying encroachments on Forest land all over Jammu and Kashmir. So the VVIP localities can’t be left behind. We have reports of encroachments on 2.5 lakh kanals Forest land in the entire State and 2000 kanals in these four VVIP localities alone,’’ Bhagat said, adding once the Forest land and encroachments on it are identified, we will take legal course to get them vacated.
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