Encroachment to be removed within days: Tehsildar Khoie
KD CORRESPONDENT
BARAMULLA, Aug 18: The pace with which J&K government is pushing its drive to evict encroachers from forest land in the Union Territory, it seems the campaign will takes decades to recover the land from mafia.
A case to cite is that of Ningli area of Tarzua in North Kashmir’s Sopore where forest land has been encroached at compartment 6A of forest division Bandipora, with administration taking no steps in retrieving it from the land mafia.
Patron Central Auqaf Tarzoo, Aijaz Ahmed Dar told Kashmir Despatch, that the forest land located at Ningli Tarzua has been permanently grabbed by some locals while the officials of the concerned department have shut their eyes to the criminal act for reasons best known to them.
“Permanent constructions of houses on the forest land have been deliberately ignored as the officials of the department have connived with the encroachers,” alleged Central Auqaf Tarzoo.
They said that despite their repeated pleas, the concerned department has failed to take any appropriate action against the land grabbers.
Earlier, this month locals of Tarzoo and Darnambal had approached the office of Deputy Commissioner Baramulla in this regard after which, the Tehsildar Khoie was asked to take appropriate necessary action after perusal of revenue record by the deputy commissioner’s office in a letter DCB/SQ/1956, Dated: 08/08/2022.
However, according to the Central Auqaf – representational body of Tarzoo and Darnambal, no action has been witnessed on the ground level so far.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Shabir Ahmed when contacted told Kashmir Despatch, that the said encroachment is decades old. The official, however, denied any action citing land belongs to the Irrigation and Flood Control department.
Meanwhile, Tehsildar Khoie when contacted said that the land has been encroached and within days these encroachments would be removed from the spot.
