By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 19 Dec: District Magistrate Savin Bansal today convened a review meeting with officials of the revenue and related departments at the Collectorate here regarding encroachments on government properties in the district. Insisting on making government properties encroachment-free and preparing a departmental land bank, the DM directed all the departments to identify illegal encroachments and take immediate action to remove them.
Additionally, he ordered the suspension of salaries of Executive Engineer NH (PWD) and the Executive Officer, Herbertpur, for not attending the meeting held today.
Expressing displeasure at hearing encroachment cases under the Public Premises Act (PP Act), Bansal clarified that the PP Act applies to buildings and not to government land. Therefore, no excuse under the pretext of PP Act would be accepted for inaction against encroachments on government land. He instructed all the SDMs to resolve all cases that come under the purview of PP Act cases within 21 days and ensure that no case remains pending during future meetings.
Bansal emphasised that citing the PP Act must not be used to shirk responsibilities and stressed the importance of effective action against encroachments. He directed the department officials concerned to remove identified encroachments by 15 January. The District Magistrate instructed departments to upload details of removed encroachments on the online portal and ensure accurate and updated land data for the land bank. He emphasised the need for coordination among various departments to implement action plans in time. He also ordered the Revenue and Judicial Departments to resolve land disputes swiftly. Bansal stressed that conserving government land is a priority and that negligence towards this would not be tolerated. He mandated a time-bound plan to ensure effective use of government properties.
The meeting was attended amongst others by Divisional Forest Officer Neeraj Kumar, ADM, Admin, Jai Bharat Singh, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Dehradun, Bir Singh Budhiyal, SDM, Kalsi, Gauri Prabhat, Municipal Commissioner, Rishikesh, Shailendra Singh Negi, SDM, Sadar, Shalini Negi, SDM, Chakrata, Yogesh Mehar, SDM, Vikasnagar, Vinod Kumar, SDM, Doiwala, Aparna Dhoundiyal, SDM, Rishikesh, Smriti Parmar and SDM Kumkum Joshi.
