Abodh Sharma
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 13: In a bizarre incident in tehsil Bhalwal, the revenue department has encroached upon more than two kanals of land belonging to a family and illegally constructed an office block in it for its staff.
While the locals have been infuriated by the grave illegality committed by the department under the patronage of responsible government officers, it is astounding that the senior revenue officers have admitted the misdeed of the department but have shamefully washed their hands off it.
The said encroachment has been done in land falling under khasra Nos 2792, 2793, 2794 and 2795 and the structure constructed therein is being used for patwaris in the office of Tehsildar Bhalwal.
Aggrieved by the 'official encroachment', the locals approached all the concerned officers, but to no avail. The matter has been brought to the notice of SDM Jammu north and tehsildar, Bhalwal but nothing has been done so far to restore the encroached land to its owners. Interestingly, Th Govind Singh Jamwal, the head of the family whose land has been encroached is a retired Naib tehsildar. Speaking to ET he said, "This land in question is their ancestral land and they have 'maalkiat' rights over this land". He regretted that concerned SDM plainly refused to undo the wrong by saying that the encroached land could not be restored to the owners. "We cannot give you any other piece of land as compensation" he went on to say" Jamwal added.
He disclosed that just opposite to the Tehsildar office Bhalwal, 40 kanals of state land marked for the construction of Govt offices, which is under the possession of land mafia could not be vacated by SDM Jammu north and tehsildar Bhalwal for reasons best known to them.
He further alleged that common people are suffering in Tehsildar office to get their extract of revenue records and on the other hand property dealers and land grabbers are getting this service with home delivery. |
