CM directs officials to remove encroachments on public properties
By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 22 May: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today chaired a special review meeting at the Secretariat on removal of encroachments from government properties. He directed that all illegal encroachments on government land should be removed immediately. He asked them to obtain detailed information on how many people from outside the state are in possession of encroached land here and how many are from the state. This data is to be presented before him soon.
Dhami further stated that orders should be issued today to all the district level authorities to remove all encroachment from government land.
The CM added that arrangements should also be made for technical training to the local youth of Uttarakhand through the Skill Development Department to enable them to obtain gainful employment. Arrangements should be made for better training to local people in trades like plumbing, carpentry, electric repair work and other technical fields. For this, necessary funds should also be arranged.
The Chief Minister added that all the District Magistrates along with their teams should conduct on-the-spot inspection of enemy properties in their respective districts. The enemy properties, which have not yet been taken under the control of the district administration, should be taken over at the earliest. It may be recalled that the properties left behind by people who had left India for Pakistan or Bangladesh (then Pakistan) after India’s wars with China (1962) and with Pakistan (1965 and 1971) are referred to in legal terms as enemy properties. They are regulated under the Enemy Property Act enacted in 1968.
The CM directed that proposals on which public projects can be made on enemy properties should also be submitted by the respective District Magistrates to the government soon.
He was informed that illegal encroachment has been removed by the Forest Department on a total of 455 hectares area, so far. Dhami stated that the responsibility of the officials who do not stop the encroachment on the government land would be fixed and strict action taken against them.
The Chief Minister ordered the State Home Department to run continuous verification campaign of outsiders and tenants. Strict action should be taken against those who are negligent in this regard. All the departments concerned should work in coordination with each other to end encroachments.
The Chief Minister further instructed all the District Magistrates to ensure that the new plotting in the districts is permitted strictly in accordance with the urban bylaws. If there is any complaint about negligence or complicity on part of any official, then strict action should be taken. He also directed that verification of all outsiders working on the Chardham Yatra and other religious places be also completed at the earliest. He directed the Garhwal and the Kumaon Commissioners to keep a close watch on all the activities related to removal of encroachments and hold regular meetings with the District Magistrates. He instructed the District Magistrates to ensure that there is no encroachment on the lands of village societies and panchayats. The District Magistrates need to ensure that fake or forged certificates are not issued to any person and strict action taken in case of any complaint. Dhami directed that all government properties be given a unique number. All departments will be required to maintain a register of government property. It will have a digital inventory. Satellite pictures of government land will be taken from time to time. Committees have been formed under the chairmanship of the District Magistrates at the district level to remove illegal encroachments. For this, a cell has been created in the Revenue Council for technical assistance. A committee has been constituted at the state level under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary. The district and state level committees will regularly monitor the action taken to remove encroachments.
Present at the meeting were Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretaries Radha Raturi, Anand Vardhan, Secretaries R Meenakshi Sundaram, Dr Pankaj Kumar Pandey, HC Semwal, Vinay Shankar Pandey, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and HoFF Anoop Malik, ADG V Murugesan, AP Anshuman, Special Secretary Ridhim Agarwal, Chief Forest Conservator, Forest Panchayat, Parag Madhukar Dhakate, Additional Secretary Rohit Meena, Vice Chairman of MDDA Banshidhar Tiwari, Additional Secretary Navneet Pandey, Garhwal Commissioner Sushil Kumar, Kumaon Commissioner Deepak Rawat, all District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police were present in physical and virtual modes.
