Sir,
Over the last few days,newspapers are often seen carrying reports of forest land having been retrieved from the encroachers in one forest compartment or the other across the State.The Forest Minister deserves all appreciation for launching drive to retrieve the forest land from the people who have encroached it illegaly.Forests are our valuable resources and encroaching the forest land is just destroying these resources for petty selfish purposes. One wonders if this land could not have been encroached overnight nor could the encroachers have dared to encroach it without the knowledge and involvement of the officers and the fieldstaff of the concerned department.Allowing encroachment of huge areas of valuable forest land is tantamount to dereliction of duty.
Similarly,there are also reports of vast tracts of Govt land falling under kahcharai having been enroached ,which,of course, is not possible without the active involvement of the officers and officials of the Revenue Department of the State,who have been entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining records of such land and ensuring that it is not encroached by the unscruplous elements of the society.Some illegal structures are also reported to have been raised on the banks of rivers and nallahs which obstruct the free flow of water,leading to huge loss of property whenever it rains.The havoc wrought by the severe floods both in Jammu and Srinagar as a result of incessant rains last year speaks volume about the extent of loss of life and property that such illegal encroachments can cause.
Thus, the need of the hour is to order a thorough probe into the land encroachment and fix responsibility and punish the guilty officers /officials of the various departments,who facilitated the encroachment and acted as mute spectators for one reason or the other.The Government need to launch a special drive to demarcate the Government land whether belonging to the revenue, forest or any other department and adopt strict measures to retrieve the land illegally occupied by the people and initiate punitive action against the officers and officials responsible for allowing the land to be encroached and prevent such encroachment in future.
Yours etc….
Ankita Sharma,
Udhampur
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