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| DFO’s suspension just a beginning, axe likely to fall on other officials also | | 7 months on, Forest Deptt fails to retrieve encroached land | | Early Times Report
Jammu, May 20: Suspension of Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Jammu on the directions of Lieutenant Governor is just a beginning as axe is likely to fall on several other officers who have failed to comply with the directions passed by the High Court to retrieve land from encroachers, even after lapse of seven months.
Sources informed Early Times that DFO Jammu had conducted an anti-encroachment drive in Sunjwan Forest Compartment number 4/c, in which the department claimed to have demolished one structure and retrieved seven Kanal of Forest land.
“The structure as well as the seven Kanal of land retrieved by the Forest division actually belonged to a senior office bearer of the Non Governmental Organization (NGO), that had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) for retrieval of Forest land from encroachers”, sources said, adding that as the Jammu Forest division officials have failed to implement the directions of Court, where over several thousand Kanals of land is under encroachment and big commercial structures and buildings have come up.
Sources said the Chief Secretary had recently taken a review meeting in which the action taken report about Jammu district was discussed. “Apart from taking some ground action and retrieving land from big encroachers, there was only paper work presented by the office, which invited action from the department”, sources said, adding that Jammu remained a priority of administration to retrieve encroachments as primary land was encroached by influential encroachers and have raised big commercial as well as residential structures.
Sources further said that axe is likely to fall on several other officers of the Forest department as many of them have so far failed to comply with directions issued by the High Court, seven months back.
The High Court in its order dated 7/10/2020, had directed the respondents, including the Forest department to file an action taken report before the HC, to retrieve the land from 50 largest encroachers (in terms of size of the land encroached) before the next date of hearing.
The Forest Department on April 30 had taken a review of the progress made with regard to the implementation of High Court directions but found that the majority of officials of the Forest divisions have failed to take any concrete action. Sources further said that similar to the failure of Forest Division Jammu, many other Forest divisions have also failed to retrieve land from encroachers during the past seven months. |
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