Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 23: The two previous coalition governments often claimed to have retrieved the encroached property outside the state, but the truth is that the Hospitality and Protocol department has failed to retrieve major chunk of property situated outside the state.
A document available with Early Times reveals that in Amritsar city of Punjab, nearly 32 kanals and 09 marlas of J&K state situated at Daim Ganj, Tapai Road is under the illegal possession of descendants of the original lessees-Beli Ram, Sardar Gurbax Singh and Hari Parkash.
"After repeated communiqué sent by the department concerned to vacate land, the encroachers refused", said sources.
The document reads: "The state government has 1251 kanals and 4 marlas of land situated in Mirpur, Sirsa, in Haryana which is under unauthorised occupation of Bajwa Brothers. This chunk of land was initially leased out for five years in favour of Bajwa Brothers by the J&K government. The lease expired in 1962, and since then they have been illegally occupying the land and have refuse to vacate it." In Chandigarh, the state of J&K owns property measuring 812.6 yards in Sector 17-A which is under the occupation of the Labour Bureau, while in New Delhi the state of J&K owns property comprising 14.32 acres of land which houses the Kashmir House. "Out of this land, nearly 96 kanals are under the occupation of Ministry of Defence since 1946. The state government has been vigorously pursuing the matter to restore the state property from the Directorate of Estates Department, but the land has not been vacated so far", said sources.
They said the matter of encroachment was repeatedly raised by the legislatures during assembly session, but the then government was least bothered about it. |
