Officials, counsels to be removed in case of adverse court orders
*DPRs to be prepared for better use of evicted patches
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 5: As huge chunk of encroached State and Kahcharai land has been retrieved across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir during the ongoing anti-encroachment drive till date, Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta has directed all the Deputy Commissioners to record geo-coordinates of retrieved land patches in the revenue records so as to avoid any misconception or fraud in future.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in a recent high-level meeting the Chief Secretary was apprised about the status of the land retrieved in each district and the measures taken to maintain the law and order by all the Deputy Commissioners and District SPs.
After detailed deliberations, the Chief Secretary directed all the Deputy Commissioners to ensure that the geo-coordinates of the retrieved land are recorded and the entry of the same be made in the revenue records as well as ‘Roznamcha’ by the concerned Patwari counter-signed by the concerned senior Revenue officer and put in public domain, sources said, adding “this is being done to avoid any misconception or fraud in future”.
“The courts where objections/report are supposed to be filed should be informed regarding the compliance of the orders”, sources said quoting the directions of the Chief Secretary, who has also made it explicitly clear that for any adverse court order/stay in this regard, the concerned official and counsel appearing or failing to appear before the court would be held accountable and removed with immediate effect.
They informed that all the Deputy Commissioners have further been told to put the retrieved land to the best use. “Any department which intends to use the retrieved land for a specific purpose such as hospitals, playgrounds, bus-stands, parking spaces, schools, colleges, roads and industries etc can formulate Detailed Project Report (DPR) and intimate the proposal for funding during the financial year 2023-23”, sources said.
Additional Director General of Police and Divisional Commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu have also been directed by the Chief Secretary to inquire/investigate any person making negative statements with respect to the ongoing anti-encroachment drives to check whether they have encroached land which they are defending.
“Further, Information Technology Department is in the process of developing a separate portal/dashboard in consultation with the Revenue Department so that specified details of all retrieved lands are recorded and put in public domain”, sources said.
The Deputy Commissioners are already under direction to personally monitor anti-encroachment drives within their districts and submit the progress report on daily basis and Commissioner Secretary Revenue is submitting detailed report of the anti-encroachment drive covering the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to the office of the Chief Secretary every evening.
It is for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir that anti-encroachment drives have been launched simultaneously across all the districts and several lakhs of kanals of encroached land has been retrieved till date. “The drive will continue till the Government takes back all the encroached land”, sources said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary has directed the Deputy Commissioners to immediately put to use the handed over vacant school buildings for other essential purposes—Panchayat Ghars, Drug De-addiction Centres etc. The process is expected to be completed within next one week.
Large number of school buildings, which were not being put to any use, were identified by the School Education Department on the directions of the present administration.
“There are no Panchayat Ghars in several Panchayats and there is dire need of Drug De-addiction Centres for the treatment of youth identified during the special drive carried out by the Government last year as such making use of vacant school buildings for this purpose is wise decision of the administration”, sources said.
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